The Last Well | Posljednji bunar

“...the future is dried up...”

Vision

It began with the story - the writer of my film Velimir Grgić (well respected author and film critic in Croatia) and I have started talking about the basis of our film. We knew we wanted to do a sci-fi film and were talking about how much water is important in our daily lives. We did some research and came upon numerous shocking facts about water and how we use it, and sadly, how realistic it is that we could (very soon) find ourselves in a situation where the water is not so accessible to all, as it is today. Some time ago a small country in Europe (Slovenia) has amended its constitution to make access to drinkable water a fundamental right for all citizens and stop it from being commercialised. In contrast to that, several years ago CEO of a huge corporation said that all the drinking water should be privatised. This film is a response, concerning basic human rights and free use of water.

The Last Well is set in near future, time is specified (2037) but in its essence it is a film about an everyday topic and survival - it’s not set after a certain huge unforeseen cataclysmic event, it might be set right before one such event happens. It’s a sort of message of plausible things to come and a warning of possible ways how humans (as a civilised beings) can start to behave when their basic existential elements like water and food become a rare commodity.

We set out to make a really engaging story that asks the audience to question the protagonists actions and motivations. The background note of this film is the predatory capacity of the commercial economy that could (once it falls down) have a huge impact on humanity with its inevitable ever shifting balance of global force and channels that it connects. Seemingly stubborn problems like human greed and environmental destructions are one of the topics of this film and it sort of answers the question; “what kind of impact such developments could have on civilised contemporary people”.

More than anything, this is a short film about the emotional lives of individuals - The Last Well has strong characters and a teasingly interesting narrative. The technology in film had advanced but it didn’t change the way people live. People still need basic stuff like water and food - without access to these fundamental things people become animals. The characters in the film do not talk about the decline of the system and about the past because it is their current reality, the film is a representation of that reality.

With this film we predict a much darker reality in which all the water is just privatised and commercialised. You can buy bottled water that beverage companies sell but with those products comes a small percentage of side effects - and little by little, people get sick from it. All the other water sources on earth are mostly polluted. This is where our film begins. One family in need of fresh drinking water for their sick child, they got in contact with the person selling it for profits and in this set of circumstances we see how people in this world function, most importantly, we see how they changed from what we know as civilised human behaviour.

Visually, the film is inspired by western paintings made by Frederic Remington and the works of realist painter Edward Hopper. Director of photography Tomislav Krnić envisioned the film as a mix of bleak pale colors with lone atmospheric tones and futuristic noir as stylistic mood sources. The visual goal was to make a dystopian look but without overly pumped special effects because the film is set in Eastern Europe and we wanted to present it in a very low-tech environment.

The idea was to make an original vision of how and where do people live outside of the cities in the future Croatia, in this case, the main protagonist lives on an old farm, a bit futuristic farm that looks very simple and very Eastern European with the outside of his farm that looks drained of nutrients and dry.

The Last Well had an extensive period of concept and design preparation, some of the concepts can be found in the concept art section of this page. The entire film was storyboarded with sketches of shots and later on was photographed before shooting almost shot by shot (34 scenes in all). The idea behind concept art was to develop a series of realistic fake-world brands that would exist in the film. In the end, the entire film has a huge amount of background design work, from weapons and food to currency and technology, everything can be further explored in this extensive background film wiki.

Words by director Filip Filković Philatz

“…water and food; without access to these fundamental things, people become animals.”

Cast

Alen Liverić

as Merchant

Croatian film, tv series and stage actor, singer and environmentalist. Liverić has a brilliant reputation for playing everything from romantic charcaters to highly dramatic heroes and villains. His film credits include “Ničiji Sin”, “Josef”, “Broj 55”, “Hitac” and many others as well as his rich tv series filmography with titles such as “Novine”, “Zora dubrovacka”, “Larin izbor”, “Vatre Ivanjske” and many others. In “The Last Well” Alen transformed himself both physically and mentally for the cold and violent yet weirdly poignantly thoughtful and mysterious character role of Merchant.

Mia Biondić

as Mother

Croatian film, tv series and stage actress best known for her performances in films “Hitac”, “7 seX 7” and “Simon Cudotvorac” as well as tv series “Pod sretnom zvijezdom”. Her ambitious stage career is very prolific with acclaimed performances in plays like “Hinkemann”, “Priroda i društvo", "Drakula", "This Casting", "Ljevoruka", "Svratište kod Alberta C" and many others. For her role of mother, Mia took a very challenging role of seemingly archetypal mother in “The Last Well” and made it into a memorable screen presence as a mysterious and a calculated woman fighting for the life of her daughter.

Ozren Grabarić

as Father

Croatian film, tv series and stage actor with strong presence and a very unique acting style. His filmography includes films like “Sve najbolje”, “Koko i duhovi”, “Ljudožder vegetarijanac”, “Kratki spojevi” and his tv series titles include “Crno-bijeli svijet”, “Pocivali u miru”, “Moja 3 zida” and others. Ozren has big and acclaimed stage performances in “Zločin i kazna”, “U agoniji”, “Hinkemann”, “Tri sestre”, “Malena”, “Kao na nebu” and many others. His role is “The Last Well” was complicated and ambiguous due to the nature of the characters he plays. Ozren is perfect for the role because his style of acting could really come to the fore creating this character whose direction and motivation varies in the film.

Ida Rogić

as Girl

The Last Well marks the acting debut for Ida staring as a young girl showing the effects of drinking contaminated water. She (along with her parents) visits Merchant to buy some of his unpolluted water and cure herself. Her young character is a bit of a follower and rebel in the beginning but through the film she finds her independent voice.

Also starring

Seck Zeen Hong, Seck Zoon Hong, Chongjun Zhang

Crew

Filip Filković Philatz

Director

Filip Filković is a film, music video and documentary director as well as multidisciplinary audiovisual author with an international experience in graphic design, animation and music. He directed and produced a number of successful and award-winning music videos, currently involved in directing TV documentaries like “Lovac na bilje” and developing tv series. The Last Well is his first short film. Filković is currently developing his next project a followup to his first short sci-fi film.

Velimir Grgić

Writer

Velimir Grgić is an author, screenwriter, producer and TV personality. He spent two years developing film projects for studio Jadran Film and was an art director and advisor for several film festivals (Subversive Film Festival). In the meantime, he published 13 books (non-fiction and fiction), wrote and produced numerous TV projects ("Zuhra Show", "Ružiona", "CSI Croatia"...), worked in theater, appeared in movies... He's currently developing international feature horror-comedy "HoliDead" with British co-producers and working on more then 10 film and TV projects for Croatian market.

Danijel Pek

Producer

Danijel Pek is Croatian TV and film producer. He studied political science and film production in Zagreb and started to work as journalist in radio and tv newsrooms in Croatia. In 2004 he was part of the team that launched RTL Television in Croatia as a producer of news and sports programe. In 2007 he founded production company Antitalent (www.antitalent.hr) focused on film, TV and online content. Eave Producers Workshop 2015 alumni.

Tomislav Krnić

Director of photography

Croatian cinematographer and videographer. Studied cinematography at Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. Over the last twenty years of professional career he filmed features, tv series, short movies, documentaries, commercials, music videos and industrial videos. He was producer and cinematographer on "Lavanderman istina ili mit?" one of the first croatian independent movies. Also produced and filmed documentary "Half a century of disco" awarded on Vukovar film festival.

Tamara Babun

Katarina Prpić

Executive producers

Pascalline Saillant

Co-producer

Anais Bertrand

Annelise Mallard

Vincent Antonini

Co-production in association with

Andreas Bernal

Post-Production Assistant

Sabrina Herak Smoković

Production assistance

Igor Miklošić - Figo

Assistant director

Marko Šuvak Martinović

Film editor

Sanja Hrstić Kuterovac

Make up artist

Alena Orović

Costume designer

Željka Rončević

Production designer

Damir Rončević

Sound recordist

Lea Mileta

Continuity

Ivan Črepić - Chum

Props

Marina Jurišić

Casting

Renata Lučić

On-set protography and video

Guillaume Couturier

Sound mastering engineer

Arthur Paux

Color grade

Chadi Abo

Visual effects supervisor

Lucile Demarquet

Sound Editor

Side Project

Original music

Yasmeen Fanari

Artistic Supervision

Nasser Abo

VFX Compositing Supervisor

Sarah Beaudouin

VFX Compositing Senior

Alexandre Quintin

3D Artist

Ivan Lugomer

Additional concept art

Dubravka Skvrce

Andrea Kustović

Costume designer assistants

Matej Lasić

Andrej Vukelić

Mario Dragičević

Camera assistants

Saša Tufegdžić

Focus puller

Mislav Lasić

Production designer assistant

Tamara Radinger

Make up assistant

Kristijan Repalust

SFX

Vlatko Šagud

Storyboard artist

Grip film

Grip and light

Marko Turčinov

Runner

and many others...

Music

Soundtrack for The Last Well is composed by Side Project, highly praised Croatian graveyard pop duo. The melodic and mostly darkly atmospheric soundtrack combined various instruments mixing classical composition, synthesizers and guitars. Side Project created a distinctive original main theme composition which is a several note melody used as a frequent motif (in various versions) in the film.

“Usually when we are making new music, there is almost always a moment when the instrumental sounds as if we are making a soundtrack for a movie that won't ever come to life and that is when we normally turn it into a song. That's how, when Filip asked us to try and make an OST for The Last Well, we were given a chance to take music making to a totally new level for us. While making the soundtrack, we watched particular movie scenes and decided what will musically happen at a few key moments in every scene. Around these few moments we had total freedom of creation. - Side Project on making soundtrack

The haunting music contributes to the film's grandeur and mystical dystopia of the futuristic landscape that has both sci-fi elements and traditional western film elements.

“Filip's film inspired us in finding the right style of music even though it had no music until we made it. The colours and light, expressions and words, visual dynamics and camera movements were the only inspiration we needed to enter his version of the future and it made it easy to make music which will hopefully only intensify the emotions and the atmosphere which Filip already brought to life on screen.” - Side Project on making soundtrack

The main theme of the film was done first so even before filming began, the basis of the main theme was there and all the actors were listening to the melodies that would eventually become the soundtrack. This helped actors (aside from visual concepts and storyboards) to imagine how the film would sound and what the audio atmosphere would be like in the final film.

The final soundtrack is “from and inspired by” The Last Well, it contains original music as featured in the final film and a collection of original music omitted from the film that is inspired by the world the film is set in, also including extended versions of tracks used in the film.

Listen To The Soundtrack For Free

Festivals

Awards

• 2020 - O Anjo Exterminador — II Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantástico de Brasília [Brazil]
• 2020 - CICAP FEST 2020 [Padova, Italy]
• 2020 - Nuits Film & Science 2020 [Netherlands]
• 2020 - 14th DORF [Vinkovci, Croatia]
• 2019 - 4th Edition of the U-Horror Film Festival [LA, US]
• 2019 - 47th Edition of the CURTAS [Vilagarcia de arousa, Spain]
• 2019 - International BiH Looks Around Festival [Bottrop, Germany]
• 2019 - 11ª CRASH Mostra Internacional de Cinema Fantástico [Goiânia, Brazil]
• 2019 - 20th Flickers’ Vortex Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Film Festival [Rhode Island, US]
• 2019 - 17th International Festival Signs of the Night (Signes de Nuit) [Paris, France]
• 2019 - Berlin Sci-Fi Filmfest [Berlin, Germany]
• 2019 - Wreak Havoc Horror Film Festival [Greensboro, US]
• 2019 - Nocturna Madrid Film Festival [Madrid, Spain]
• 2019 - Flint Fright Film Festival [Flint, US]
• 2019 - Pentedattilo Film Festival [Reggio Calabria, Italy]
• 2019 - 23ème Festival ECRAN LIBRE [Aigues-Mortes, France]
• 2019 - Green Montenegro International Film Fest [NP Durmitor, Montenegro]
• 2019 - Mediterranean Short Film Festival Of Tangier [Tangier, Morocco]
• 2019 - Ariano International Film Festival [Ariano Irpino, Italy]
• 2019 - Kraków International Green Film Festival [Kraków, Poland]
• 2019 - Rural Film Fest [Parque Natural Valle de Alcudia y Sierra Madrona, Spain]
• 2019 - Hotmilk Film Makers (Le festival du court métrage) [Cholet, France]
• 2019 - Sick 'n' Wrong Film Festival [Orlando, Florida]
• 2019 - Festival Armoricourt (Films Non Francophones) [Plestin-les-Grèves, France]
• 2019 - Montevideo Fantástico Film Festival [Montevideo, Uruguay]
• 2019 - Horrorant Film Festival "Fright Nights"[Athens, Greece]
• 2019 - End of Days Film Festival [Orlando, USA]
• 2019 - Milwaukee Twisted Dreams Film Festival [Milwaukee, USA]
• 2019 - Ouchy Film Awards [Lausanne, Switzerland]
• 2019 - Skepto International Film Festival [Caligary, Italy]
• 2019 - FON, Festival of nations [Lenzing, Austria]
• 2019 - Semana da Europa [Rio de Janeiro, Brazil]
• 2019 - EU-China Short Film Festival [R.O.C.]
• 2019 - South East European Film Festival Los Angeles (SEEfest) [Los Angeles, US]
• 2019 - International Film Festival of Larissa [Larissa, GR]
• 2019 - 20th Landshuter Short Film Festival [Landshut, DE]
• 2019 - Prague International Short Film Festival [Prague, CZ]
• 2019 - Festival des Rencontres Cinéma-Nature [Auvergne, FR]
• 2019 - MFF Friday Night Horror Fest [US]
• 2019 - La 19ème édition du Festival du film court francophone [Vaulx-en-Velin, FR]
• 2019 - Horror-on-Sea Film Festival [Southend-on-Sea, UK]
• 2018 - 37th Festival du cinéma international en Abitibi-Témiscaminguef (North American premiere) - Espace Court 2018 [Quebec, Canada]
• 2018 - 17th SPASM Short Film Festival [Quebec, Canada]
• 2018 - International Mediterranean Film Festival of Montpellier [Montpellier, France]
• 2018 - Trieste Science+Fiction Film Festival [Trieste, Italy]
• 2018 - Kaohsiung Film Festival [Kaohsiung City, Taiwan (R.O.C)]
• 2018 - Frostbiter Film Festival [Akranes, Iceland]
• 2018 - 17th SPASM Short Film Festival [Tuzla, FB&H]
• 2018 - Utopiales de Nantes Film Festival [Nantes, France]
• 2018 - International festival du film d'Amiens [Amiens, France]
• 2018 - 9th International Green Culture "Green Fest" [Belgrade, Serbia]
• 2018 - 2018 Fatherhood Image Film Festival [New York, United States]
• 2018 - FerFilm Festival [Ferizaj, Republic of Kosovo]
• 2018 - 21. Motovun Film Festival [Motovun, Croatia]
• 2018 - 41st Festival du film court en plein dir de Grenoble (INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE) [Grenoble, France]
• 2018 - New Renaissance Film Festival [London, UK]
• 2018 - 23rd L'Étrange Festival [Paris, France]
• 2018 - Grossmann Fantastic Film and Wine Festival [Ljubljana, Slovenia]
• 2018 - Atlanta Award-Qualifying Film Festival [New York, US]
• 2018 - Art For Piece Festival [Teheran, Iran]
• 2018 - Paphos International Film Festival [Paphos, Cyprus]
• 2018 - Diversions International Short Film Festival [Sv. Ivan Zelina, Croatia]
• 2018 - Bloody Weekend International Film Festival [Audincourt, France]
• 2018 - Austrian Independent Film Festival [Vienna, Austria]
• 2017 - Oniros Film Awards [Aosta, Italy]
• 2017 - Genre Celebration Festival [Tokyo, Japan]
• 2017 - Ouchy Film Awards [Lausanne, Switzerland]
• 2017 - Zagreb Film Festival (Checkers competition) (FILM PREMIERE) [Zagreb, Croatia]
• 2016 - Paris Courts Devant (Le film en construction) [Paris, France]

• 2020 - WINNER - O Anjo Exterminador — Festival Int. de Cinema Fantástico de Brasília
• 2020 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - 2020 Cicap Fest
• 2020 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Nuits Film & Science
• 2020 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - 14th Dorf Film Festival
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - 4th Edition of the U-Horror Film Festival
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - 47th Edition of the CURTAS
• 2019 - WINNER - International BiH Looks Around Festival
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - 11ª CRASH Mostra Internacional de Cinema Fantástico
• 2019 - WINNER - 20th Flickers’ Vortex Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Film Festival
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - 17th International Festival Signs of the Night (Signes de Nuit)
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Berlin Sci-Fi Filmfest
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Wreak Havoc Horror Film Festival
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Nocturna Madrid Film Festival
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Flint Fright Film Festival
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Pentedattilo Film Festival
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - 23ème Festival ECRAN LIBRE
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Green Montenegro International Film Fest
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Rural Film Fest
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Mediterranean Short Film Festival Of Tangier
• 2019 - WINNER - Kraków International Green Film Festival (3rd award best narrative)
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Rural Film Fest
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Hotmilk Film Makers (Le festival du court métrage)
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Sick 'n' Wrong Film Festival
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Festival Armoricourt (Films Non Francophones)
• 2019 - WINNER - End of Days Film Festival (Best Male Actor, Alen Liverić)
• 2019 - WINNER - End of Days Film Festival (Best Supporting Female Actor, Mia Biondić)
• 2019 - WINNER - End of Days Film Festival (Best Apocalyptic Film)
• 2019 - WINNER - End of Days Film Festival (Best Apocalyptic Story)
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Horrorant Film Festival "Fright Nights"
• 2019 - WINNER - Montevideo Fantástico Film Festival (Special Mention)
• 2019 - WINNER - Milwaukee Twisted Dreams FF (Best shortfilm)
• 2019 - WINNER - Milwaukee Twisted Dreams FF (Best actor in a short film, Alen Liverić)
• 2019 - WINNER - Ouchy Film Awards (Best film)
• 2019 - WINNER - Skepto International Film Festival (Human/Nature Special mention award)
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - FON - Festival of nations
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - EU-China Short Film Festival
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Semana da Europa
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - South East European Film Festival Los Angeles (SEEfest)
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - International Film Festival of Larissa
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - 20th Landshuter Short Film Festival
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Prague International Short Film Festival
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Festival des Rencontres Cinéma-Nature
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - MFF Friday Night Horror Fest
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - La 19ème édition du Festival du film court francophone
• 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Horror-on-Sea Film Festival
• 2018 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - 37th Festival du cinéma international en Abitibi-Témiscaminguef
• 2018 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - 17th SPASM Short Film Festival
• 2018 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - International Mediterranean Film Festival of Montpellier
• 2018 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Trieste Science+Fiction Film Festival
• 2018 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Kaohsiung Film Festival
• 2018 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Frostbiter Film Festival
• 2018 - WINNER - 7. Tuzla Film Festival (Best Short Film winner)
• 2018 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Utopiales de Nantes Film Festival
• 2018 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - International festival du film d'Amiens
• 2018 - WINNER - Best short sci-fi film - New Renaissance Film Festival
• 2018 - WINNER - 9th International Green Culture "Green Fest"
• 2018 - WINNER - Fatherhood Image Film Festival - Jury Award for Best Director
• 2018 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - FerFilm Festival Kosovo
• 2018 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - 21. Motovun Film Festival
• 2018 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - 41st Festival du film court en plein dir de Grenoble
• 2018 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - 23rd L'Étrange Festival
• 2018 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Grossmann Fantastic Film and Wine Festival
• 2018 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Atlanta Award-Qualifying Film Festival
• 2018 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Art For Piece Festival
• 2018 - WINNER - Diversions International Short FF (Jury Award for Best Cinematography)
• 2018 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Paphos International Film Festival
• 2018 - WINNER - Ouchy Film Awards - Jury Award for Best Director
• 2018 - WINNER - Austrian Independent Film Festival - Best Short Film
• 2018 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Bloody Weekend International Film Festival
• 2017 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Zagreb Film Festival - The Golden Pram
• 2017 - WINNER - Oniros film awards (Best Short Film winner)
• 2017 - WINNER - Oniros film awards (Best Short of the month winner)
• 2017 - WINNER - Genre Celebration Festival (Best Sci-Fi Short winner)
• 2017 - WINNER - Genre Celebration Festival (Best Visual Effects winner)
• 2016 - WINNER (Post-production) - Paris Courts Devant - Prix Euro Courts Devant