Sandbag Dam

Sandbag Dam / Zečji nasip

Čejen Černić, Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania, 2025, 88’, sp 

A story of forbidden love between two young men in the Croatian countryside, where the boundaries of tolerance are narrow and the dams of intolerance are firmly fixed.

Marko lives in a Croatian village with his parents and his younger brother, of whom he is very fond. Although he is a gifted athlete, he prepares to follow his father’s plan for him to become a car mechanic once he has finished school. Two events throw Marko’s seemingly stable life out of balance: the village is threatened by flooding, and his forbidden first love, Slaven, returns home for his father’s funeral. 

“Water symbolizes emotions. Just like water, emotions always find their way. They cannot be stopped. If you try to stop them, they will find another path, another way to pour out. The low sandbag dams we see in the film are the first line of defense against the rising river. In the film, they represent a realistic defense against flooding, while at the same time, all the main characters are also symbolically building dams, walls, and barriers around themselves. Marko builds a dam around himself, his mother around the family, and the entire village or community against the things that threaten it. They protect their traditional values from progressive ways of thinking.” Čejen Černić, Ekran 

Čejen Černić Čanak studied film at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. She has directed both live-action and documentary and animated short films. In 2017, she directed her feature film debut, The Mystery of Green Hill (2017), which was selected for several international festivals and screened in the U.S., Canada, China, Austria, Germany, and elsewhere. Sandbag Dam is her second feature film. 

Talk: Čejen Černić Čanak 

In collaboration with Ljubljana Pride Festival.