Mladen Kovačević
KORYO
Diana finds her sister's audio diary from 1987 family trip to North Korea, setting off investigation across former Yugoslavia in a haunting blend of drama, historical speculation and science fiction.
SYNOPSIS
Diana returns to the family home for her estranged father’s funeral and stays to untangle the secrecy around him. When she finds her sister’s audio diary from the family’s 1987 visit to North Korea, where their father’s Yugoslav company was building a hospital, it sets off a personal investigation across the former Yugoslavia, and she begins to suspect family secrets are about her. As she listens to something related to her past, like her sister’s teenage diary, she sees memories overlaying her present reality. She eventually learns that her father’s company’s research accidentally led to an implant that disrupts the biological mechanism responsible for the chronological perception of time, and realises the scar behind her ear is not the result of a childhood injury. North Korean operatives attempt to kidnap her. She comes to terms with her father’s final betrayal before his death. The secrets shatter Diana’s reality, yet their discovery gives meaning to her exploration of identity, longing, and mortality.
DIRECTOR
Mladen Kovačević
PRODUCER
Čarna Vučinić
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Horopter
CO-PRODUCTION COMPANIES
Eclectica, Vertigo
COUNTRIES
Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia
Mladen Kovačević
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Mladen Kovačević is a director and writer based in Belgrade. His most recent film, Possibility of Paradise (2024) had its premiere in the Giornate degli Autori at the Venice Film Festival, while his previous films Unplugged (2013), Wall of Death and All That (2016), 4 Years in 10 Minutes (2018), Merry Christmas, Yiwu (2020), and Another Spring (2022) have been selected for the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Visions du Réel, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, the Hot Docs Canadian International Dcumentary Festival, CPH:DOX, and FIDMarseille, have won numerous awards, including the Heart of Sarajevo, and have screened at prestigious venues like the Barbican Centre in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. He is currently developing two fiction features: Koryo and Behind the Doors, Behind the Curtains.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Even though the simplicity of realism prevails throughout this film – in motivations, actions, and documentary-like dialogue – as Diana's pursuit progresses and intensifies, the genre gradually shifts from drama with memory-thriller elements to true thriller and science fiction. All the narrative elements remain firmly anchored in real events, however, from the diary Diana's sister Carmen recorded in North Korea to the historical background of the relationship between North Korea and Socialist Yugoslavia. The science-fiction aspect, too, comes across as genuine 1980s science, contextualising and poetically amplifying Diana's provocative exploration of universal existential tensions – the choices we make and those others make for us, the places where we're born and the places where we end up, childhood pains and adult crises of identity, midlife anxieties, and the imperative for self-realisation – and how it all defines our futures with the inescapable terror of impermanence.
Čarna Vučinić
PRODUCER’S BIOGRAPHY
Čarna Vučinić produced the feature films Have You Seen This Woman? (2022), which was selected for the Settimana Internazionale della Critica at the Venice Film Festival;Yugo Goes to America (2026), which screened at CPH:DOX; and I Plant My Hand in the Garden (2026), which was presented in the Giornate degli Autori at Venice; and short films including Love (2017), a Visions du Réel selection; Foreign Body (2018), which was screened in Venice; The Ghosts You Draw on My Back (2023) which was presented at the Sarajevo Film Festival; Upon Sunrise (2025), which screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam; Hysterical Fit of Laughter (2025), which was selected for the Locarno Film Festival; and, most recently, Nobody Said Anything (2026) which had its premiere in the Official Competition at the Festival de Cannes. Vučinić is an EAVE alum, a member of the European Film Academy, and in on the teaching staff at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade.
PRODUCER’S STATEMENT
Being an independent filmmaker in Serbia has never been more challenging. For the past two years, public funding for cinema has been cancelled in Serbia. Due to political reasons, Film Center Serbia is non-operational – a way to punish filmmakers, who have been among the most vocal critics of the criminal and corrupt regime ruling the country. For Koryo, international collaborations are a necessary condition for making this work at all. We are seeking co-producers, financiers, sales agents, and distributors interested in art-house cinema with strong female protagonists. We are also looking for heads of departments and post-production partners, as well as casting opportunities, including within Korean diaspora communities. As a woman living and working in patriarchal Serbia, I very much identify with Diana’s investigation – moving through memory, grief, and inherited silences, trying to make sense of what’s left unsaid. This perspective feels deeply universal, and I believe Koryo can resonate far beyond our region.
Production company profile
Based in Serbia, Horopter Film Production has established a strong international presence through co-productions with Germany, France, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Qatar, and Croatia. Its films are supported by major broadcasters and institutions including ARTE, RTBF, Radio Television of Serbia, the Swedish Film Institute, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Région Île-de-France, the Doha Film Institute, Visions Sud Est, and the Film Center Serbia. Horopter’s films have been screened at leading international festivals including Visions du Réel, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, CPH:DOX, FIDMarseille, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, DocLisboa, the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, the Montreal International Documentary Festival, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival, as well as at the Cinémathèque of the Centre Pompidou. The films have received major awards such as the FIPRESCI Prize and the Heart of Sarajevo. The company’s slate includes Unplugged (2013), Wall of Death, and All That (2016), 4 Years in 10 Minutes (2018), Merry Christmas, Yiwu (2020), Another Spring (2022), and Possibility of Paradise (2024).
Where are we at?
TOTAL ESTIMATED BUDGET
1.110.115 €
FINANCES PENDING
818.761 €
FINANCING IN PLACE
291.355 €
Production timeline
Summer 2026 - Summer 2027
Financing
Autumn 2027
Shooting
Spring 2028
Premiere