Bojan Vuletić
THE WHITE WEEK
An eleven-year-old boy exploits his brother’s tragic death to fight his father and his community. His lies expose the hypocrisy and corruption beneath a seemingly moral society.
SYNOPSIS
After a quarrel with his strict father, twelve-year-old Jovan runs away from home. His younger brother Đorđe finds him by the river and begs him to return. When Jovan jumps into the river to save the family dog, he drowns. Terrified, Đorđe tells his parents that his brother was abduceted by strangers, triggering a massive search.
As the only witness, Đorđe becomes trapped in his own lie while fear, corruption, and paranoia spread through the village. Everyone finds a convenient suspect, and the search reveals the community’s hypocrisy. When Jovan’s body is finally found, Đorđe confesses. But his broken father, unwilling to lose his second son, insists the lie must become the official truth. During the White Week carnival, a ritual of forgiveness, the village embraces the fabricated story, leaving Đorđe alone with a truth no one else is willing to face.
DIRECTOR
Bojan Vuletić
WRITER
Bojan Vuletić
PRODUCER
Jelena Mitrović
CO-PRODUCER
Boris T. Matić, Lana Matić, Danijel Hočevar, Ivan Đurović
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Film House Baš Čelik
CO-PRODUCTION COMPANY
Propeler Film, Vertigo, Artikulacija
COUNTRIES
Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro
GENRE
Fiction
Bojan Vuletić
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Bojan Vuletić graduated from studies in film and TV directing from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. He earned his PhD at the same faculty. His first feature film, Practical Guide Through Belgrade with Singing and Crying, which had its premiere in the East of the West competition at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2011. It won several national and international awards, including the FEDEORA Critics Award at the Pula Film Festival, the FIPRESCI Prize at the Cinema City Film Festival, and a Special Jury Prize in South Korea. His second feature, Requiem for Mrs. J., had its premiere in 2017 in the Panorama Special programme of the Berlin International Film Festival. It won multiple awards at national and international festivals: the FIPRESCI Prize at the Sofia Film Festival, the Grand Prix at goEast Wiesbaden Film Festival and Ontrato Film Festival. It was screened at the Festival de Cannes in the ACID programme and was nominated for a European Film Award. He is the creator of the popular television series Family, which achieved great success across the region, winning two Heart of Sarajevo Awards for Best TV Series and the main prize at the Serial Killer festival in Czechia. As a co-writer, he has collaborated with Stefan Arsenijević on the omnibus film Lost and Found and the feature films, Love and Other Crimes, which premiered at the Berlinale in 2008, and As Far as I Can Walk, which premiered in Karlovy Vary in 2022 and won three major awards. Vuletić is a member of the European Film Academy and the Serbian Association of Film Directors, and works as an associate professor at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade.
In the age of “post-truth,” facts are eclipsed by fear, emotion, and manipulation. The White Week tells the story of ten-year-old Đorđe, who lies about his brother’s drowning, claiming he was abducted. As the search unfolds, his deception exposes the hypocrisy and prejudice of a rural community, while the boy gradually loses the ability to distinguish truth from lies. Set during the traditional White Week, a ritual of forgiveness before Lent, the film asks whether a lie can become truth if everyone chooses to believe it. Combining documentary realism with dreamlike imagery and an immersive soundscape, The White Week is a psychological drama about guilt, loss, family and the fragile nature of truth.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Jelena Mitrović
PRODUCER’S BIOGRAPHY
Jelena Mitrović was born in Belgrade in 1977. With her company Film House Baš Čelik, she has produced or co-produced more than thirty films, including Srdan Golubović’s The Trap (2007), which was selected for the Forum section at the Berlin International Film Festival, won twenty-two international awards, and was short listed for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film; Maja Miloš’s Clip , which won the Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2012; Nikola Majdak and Ana Nedeljković’s short animated film Rabbitland, which won the Crystal Bear in the Generation 14+ section of the Berlinale in 2013; and Golubović’s Circles (2013), which won a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Berlinale. Mitrović’s recent productions include Golubović’s feature Father, which won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the Audience Award when it screened in the Panorama programme at the Berlinale in 2020, and for which Goran Bogdan was nominated for the European Film Academy Award for Best Actor . Her recent co-productions have also garnered critical acclaim, among them Una Gunjak’s Excursion (2023) and Georgi Unkovski’s DJ Ahmet (2025), which won prizes including a Special Mention at the Locarno Film Festival and both a Special Jury Award and the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Films Mitrović has produced have been screened at more than nine hundre\d festivals worldwide and won more than two hundred international film awards. She received the Discovery Award from the Cottbus Film Festival in 2007 for her achievement in feature-film production. In 2010, she was selected for Producers on the Move at the Festival de Cannes.
She is a member of the European Film Academy and ACE. Since 2014, she has been a professor of film production at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Belgrade.
PRODUCER’S STATEMENT
The White Week explores how lies shape reality, following the coming-of-age story of a young boy growing up in a harsh and hypocritical environment in eastern Serbia. Faced with fear and emotional neglect, he copes with trauma by manipulating those around him, creating a fragile parallel reality in his search for love, safety, and recognition.Conceived as a contemporary psychological family drama with elements of suspense, The White Week examines one of the defining issues of our time: how lies gradually become accepted as truth. I was immediately drawn to the project by the emotional precision of Bojan Vuletić’s script and his unique ability to explore complex moral and psychological questions through restrained storytelling and a distinctive visual language. The White Week explores universal themes of truth, guilt, parental authority, and moral responsibility, making it highly relevant to international audiences.Bojan Vuletić has established himself as one of the leading auteurs of the region, with films premiering at Berlinale and Karlovy Vary and enjoying a strong international festival life.The White Week is a European co-production between Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, and Montenegro, with a budget of €834,411, supported by CE MEDIA and Eurimages. We are currently completing the edit and are seeking an international world sales partner, as well as post-production funds and Work-in-Progress opportunities, to strengthen the film’s creative and market potential.As a producer, my goal is to protect the director’s artistic vision while building the partnerships needed to bring the film to the widest possible international audience through festivals and theatrical distribution.
Production company profile
Film House Baš Čelik was established in 1998. By 2019, the company had produced and co-produced more than twenty feature-length fiction films, several documentaries and short films. We are also engaged in TVC production, where we succeeded to create and produce very successful marketing campaigns, hundreds of commercials, and a large number of musical videos. The company’s productions include Srdan Golubović’s The Trap (2007), which was selected for the Forum section of the Berlin International Film Festival, won twenty-two international awards, and was short-listed for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film; Maja Miloš’s Cli, , which won the Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2012; Nikola Majdak and Ana Nedeljković’s short animated film Rabbitland, which won the Crystal Bear in the Generation 14+ section of the Berlinale in 2013; Golubović’s Circles(2013), which won a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Berlinale.Films produced by Film House Baš Čelik have been screened at more than eight hundred festivals worldwide and won more than 180 international awards.
Where are we at?
TOTAL ESTIMATED BUDGET
840.000 €
NEEDED FOR COMPLETION
60.000 €
Looking for at CineLink?
World Sales, Funds and partners to help us finish the post-production of the film.