Oja Kodar

A poetic journey into the visual world of the legendary filmmaker and actor Orson Welles (1915-85) that reveals a new portrait of a unique genius, both of his life and of his monumental work: through his own eyes, drawn by his own hand, painted with his own brush.

At a media-swamped party to celebrate his seventieth birthday and screen his avant-garde film-in-progress, a legendary but jaded Hollywood director is faced both with voracious fans and unsettling questions about what became of his lead actor.

Documents the lives of infamous fakers Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving. De Hory, who later committed suicide to avoid more prison time, made his name by selling forged works of art by painters like Picasso and Matisse. Irving was infamous for writing a fake autobiography of Howard Hughes. Welles moves between documentary and fiction as he examines the fundamental elements of fraud and the people who commit fraud at the expense of others.

An unfinished feature film directed by Orson Welles and based on Charles Williams’s Dead Calm (1963), filmed between 1966 and 1969 off the Yugoslav coast. Starring Welles, Jeanne Moreau, and Laurence Harvey, the project follows a newlywed couple whose yacht voyage becomes a psychological thriller after encountering a drifting vessel. The film remains incomplete, with missing scenes, unfinished sound, and surviving only in workprint form.

In a chain reaction of romantic adventures, various people play musical beds in a remake of Max Ophul's "La Ronde."

Life and times of Nikola Tesla, famous scientist whose inventions were stolen, but whose greatest contribution to mankind remain a mystery to this day.

Blake Pellarin is on the campaign trail to become president of the United States. While making a stop in St. Louis, a chance encounter brings his past back to haunt him.

An unreleased 1969 made-for-TV short adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, produced, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. Originally part of the abandoned CBS special Orson’s Bag, the completed film later became partially lost due to missing workprints and sound elements, surviving only in fragmentary form until a reconstructed restoration premiered in 2015.

Paola, still young and married to a rich industrialist, seeks an outlet to the uselessness of her life by coming into contact with the young activists of the student movement, meetings she attends. Paula tries to convert even her teenage children Afdera and Prando, to the ideas of the movement, who end up accepting the mother's convictions and agree to participate in an action of sabotage against a large factory. But when they discover that the factory to be sabotaged is precisely that of the father, they renounce the mission, disappointing the mother.

A Hollywood film director assembles a group of friends and strangers for a social gathering on Valentines Day in a deserted movie theater where he interviews each one on their opinions on love and loneliness.

Tracing Orson Welles time in Spain.

A posthumous 1992 reconstruction of Orson Welles’s long-unfinished Don Quixote project, edited by Jesús Franco from footage shot between 1957 and 1972, following Don Quixote and Sancho Panza as they wander modern Spain in pursuit of chivalric ideals. (Note: This version represents a later editorial assembly, not a film completed by Welles.)

The Dreamers (1985) is a posthumous short film assembled by Oja Kodar from unfinished footage directed by Orson Welles in 1982. Edited after Welles’s death, the film derives from fragmentary material intended for an uncompleted adaptation of stories by Isak Dinesen. The 1985 version represents an editorial assembly rather than a completed work authored by Welles, presenting selected footage in a reconstructed form for archival circulation. (Note: This is a posthumous editorial reconstruction. The original 1982 project exists separately as an unfinished Welles work and was never completed or released by him.)

Vincent And Gregoire have just won a lot a money. The latter wants the whole pile and flies away to Turkey where he meets a compatriot, Appoline, and her boss Samos.

George Hickenlooper filmed five pages (two scenes) from Orson Welles' screenplay of "The Big Brass Ring" in 1997 in the hope of attracting interest in the project. The feature film version was released in 1999.

The murder of a bandit gives a policeman the opportunity to unmask the activities of a spy.

Orson Welles' archives of unfinished/never released movies and the last years of his life from the perspective of Oja Kodar (life and artistic partner of Orson Welles in his last years).

A story about several people who share the same yard within their block, and a piece of blue sky above 'em.

The seemingly pleasant life of Marija and her son Darko is broken when their village is attacked by the Serbian chetniks, forcing them to evacuate and look for new living and employment opportunites in the nearby city, with the former taking a job in the washroom of the local hospital and the latter, against his mother's wishes, deciding to join the Croatian Army. A few weeks later, Marija recieves the news of her son's passing and decides to head into no man's land to retrieve his remains and bury them in the village they both grew up in.

After getting beat up by her husband, a woman leaves home and seeks refuge at her cousin's place, surrounded by a strange assortment of people, including an equally abused transsexual.

An unfinished 1981 essay-documentary project by Orson Welles, based on a filmed Q&A session at USC following a screening of The Trial, intended as a reflective companion piece to the film but never edited or completed during his lifetime. The film was edited and screened in the 2000s by the Munich Filmmuseum.

One Man Band (1999) is a posthumous archival reconstruction created by the Munich Film Museum from unfinished footage shot by Orson Welles between 1968 and 1971. The film assembles five comic vignettes—Churchill, Swinging London, Four Clubmen, Stately Homes, and Tailors—originally produced for Welles’s abandoned television project Orson’s Bag. Edited into a 29-minute composite short for festival exhibition, the film represents a curatorial reconstruction rather than a completed work authored or released by Welles. (Note: This is a posthumous archival assembly. The original unfinished project exists separately under the working titles London / Swinging London and was never completed or released by Orson Welles.)