THE HAPPIEST MAN IN THE WORLD
Film - International Independents Filmfest 2023

THE HAPPIEST MAN IN THE WORLD

Directed by Teona Strugar Mitevska

Info

Director: Teona Strugar Mitevska
Section: International Independents
Country: Belgium, North Macedonia, Slovenia
Year: 2022
OT: NAJSREЌNIOT ČOVEK NA SVETOT
Language: Bosnian
Version: Original version with English subtitles
Cast: Jelena Koedić Kuret, Adnan Omerović, Labina Mitevska, Ana Kostovska, Ksenija Marinković
18+ (no age rating)

Logline

Following the award-winning satire GOD EXISTS, HER NAME IS PETRUNYA, Teona Strugar Mitevska delivers a drily humorous film about reconciliation against the backdrop of the war in Bosnia.

Asya, who's 40 years old and single, attends a speed dating event at a hotel in Sarajevo. There she's matched up with Zoran, a 43-year-old banker. But while Asja and the other participants are looking for love, Zoran, who once fought in the Bosnian war, is hoping more than anything to find forgiveness.

Meet the director

THE HAPPIEST MAN IN THE WORLD

Teona Strugar Mitevska

Teona Strugar Mitevska was born into a family of artists in Skopje, then in Yugoslavia, in 1974. Her first contact with film was as a child actress. She studied graphic design and was an art director before studying film at the Tisch School of the Arts in New York. With her siblings Labina Mitevska and Vuk Mitevski she founded the Sisters and Brother Mitevski production company in 2001. She presented her first full-length feature film, HOW I KILLED A SAINT, in 2004. It was followed by I AM FROM TITOV VELES, which premiered at the Berlinale and went on to receive more than 20 awards at various festivals. THE WOMAN WHO BRUSHED OFF HER TEARS and WHEN THE DAY HAD NO NAME also had their world premieres in Berlin, as did GOD EXISTS, HER NAME IS PETRUNYA, which was screened in competition at the Berlinale in 2019 and received the Ecumenical Jury Prize and the Guild Film Award. THE HAPPIEST MAN IN THE WORLD premiered in the Orizzonti section in Venice in 2022.

Credits

Screenplay: Elma Tataragić, Teona Strugar Mitevska
Director of Photography: Virginie Saint Martin
Film Editor: Per K. Kirkegaard
Composer: Kristoffer Salting
Production Designer: Vuk Mitevski
Costume Design: Monika Lorber
Sound: Ingrid Simon
Make-up artist: Mojca Gorogranc Petrushevska
Producer: Labina Mitevska
Production Company: SISTERS AND BROTHER MITEVSKI, ENTRE CHIEN ET LOUP
Co-Producer: Sébastien Delloye, Danijel Hočevar, Vanja Sremac, Maria Møller Christoffersen, Amra Bakšić Čamo, Adis Đapo
Co-Production Company: VERTIGO, TERMINAL 3, FRAU FILM
World Sales: Pyramide International