Facing the Day

Spanning decades, the film follows lovers Lovro and Nenad and their friends Stevan and Ivan, a group of gay partisans who fought against the Ustashas and Nazis. Sixteen years later, they became renowned filmmakers navigating life in post-WWII Communist Yugoslavia. As they rise to fame, they are forced to create propaganda for the regime, risking everything to protect their identities and each other. In 1957 their sexual orientation raises suspicion, and a communist party loyalist named Emir is assigned to sabotage their careers and lives, a party loyalist hiding his own secrets, whose loyalties begin to falter. The pursuit of freedom becomes a fight for survival for the artists, while Emir's beliefs are challenged. Lush, intimate, and politically charged (and with startling parallels to our current political climate), Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day is a poignant story of resistance — against oppression, against silence, and for the freedom to live and love without fear.

The film is a high-concept project with five stories exploring the themes of motherhood and pregnancy, directed by women filmmakers from five former Yugoslav republics. “Croatian Story” follows an anguished painter who must decide whether or not to keep one of her unborn twins, diagnosed with Down syndrome. “Serbian Story” finds an expectant mother in the same emergency room with a charming killer. “Bosnia-Herzegovina Story” centers on a financially strapped Sarajevo family whose son?s lover is pregnant. “Macedonian Story” unfolds in a clinic where a drug addict struggles to keep her baby, and “Slovenian Story” ends the omnibus on a humorous note with a nun who finds her own way to immaculate conception.

Dora is a neglected girl, who dreams about becoming a football manager. Suddenly, her outlaw father enters her life and they build a close relationship. Ives, a soap opera director, nurses her father who suffers from Alzheimer’s. As she loses him, she gradually loses the ground beneath her feet. Nataša, successful producer, is pregnant. When things go awry for her, she decides to confront her estranged father. Three daughters battle for acceptance, redemption and new opportunities.