Silent Cinema
The line‑up of the jubilee edition of INmusic Festival will, for the second year in a row, be complemented by a top‑tier film program curated by Animafest, Zagreb Dox and Human Rights Film Festival.On the Silent Stage, which transforms overnight into the setting for the loudest quiet party, visitors can enjoy daily film screenings from renowned Croatian film festivals between 5 PM and 9 PM.
All three festivals take pride in decades of tradition and their status as key players not only in the Croatian but also in the global independent film scene. Animafest Zagreb, as one of the world’s most important animation festivals, guarantees visual magic and innovative artistic visions, and this year’s animated selection for INmusic will explore themes of music and musical creation. ZagrebDox has prepared award‑winning regional and international documentaries featuring deep and intriguing real‑life stories, while the Human Rights Film Festival will present socially engaged and thought‑provoking films that encourage reflection and a critical look at the world around us.
Detailed overview of films by selection:
Human Rights Film Festival: Kamal Aljafari Retrospective
The films of Palestinian director and artist Kamal Aljafari (born in Ramla in 1972) bring a poetic filmography marked by unrest and the exploration of the politics of images amidst power plays, transforming everyday life and ruins in the occupied territories into a space of resistance.
UNDR (15') The camera's eye obsessively returns to the same places, introducing a vertical perspective of control and possession of archaeological sites and desert stones. While peasants are seen from afar tilling the land, transformed into the landscape, the silence of the place is shattered by explosions that prepare the ground for new cities and forests, turning the space into a scenography of appropriation.
Paradiso, XXXI (21') The film deals with the politics of memory and the question of how to express through violence what is absent and condemned to disappear. In the frames of a carefully staged Israeli army propaganda film from the 1970s, condensed into sharp cascades of images, Palestine is envisioned exclusively as a battlefield, once again becoming "a shadow that runs faster than the body from which it emanates".
It's a Long Way from Amphioxus (16') Set in Berlin waiting rooms with metal and wooden seats, this surreal film observes people arriving after being brought by the sea. In a system where humanity is reduced to numbers waiting for their turn in grey bureaucratic labyrinths, the film questions the meaning of life and the roots of our being.
ZagrebDox: Six Excellent Short Documentaries
Behind the Smile (d. Marko Đorđević) // Serbia, 2025, 32' Ten years after the death of the legendary Yugoslav musician Vlada Divljan, his family opens boxes full of his personal items. The discovered home videos capture intimate family moments and the birth of his music, while imaginary animated adventures on an island draw the viewer into the deeply personal world of an artist who shaped generations.
A First-Class Horse (d. Lasse Linder) // Switzerland, Belgium, 2025, 21'
The film follows Legacy, one of the most valuable and celebrated mares in show jumping, on her long journeys around the world in a specific business class flight for horses—from training and takeoff to the Grand Prix.
Omama (d. Martin Herr) // Hungary, Belgium, Portugal, 2026, 17'
An intimate and unusual reflection on resilience and decay through the story of an 88-year-old grandmother from a Hungarian village whose main wish is not to wake up tomorrow. When her emigrant filmmaker grandson returns hoping to reconnect, the film exposes the class gap that divides them, but also the care that deeply binds them.
Window Memories (d. Mehraneh Salimian and Amin Pakparvar) // Iran, USA, Germany, 2026, 19'
Following the crackdown on protests in Iran, civilians begin documenting the unrest from behind their windows. When a woman is shot while filming, a film student writes her a letter, posing a crucial question: Can a revolution born behind a window?
Sanyi the Rooster (d. Lotte Salomons) // Netherlands, 2025, 20'
In the southeastern Hungarian city of Békéscsaba, shaped by poverty and political divisions, a rooster escapes from the market. He settles in the main square in the heart of the city and rises to the status of a national hero. Driven by his stubborn desire for freedom, the residents take him under their wing, but when the rooster dies, conspiracy theories, mistrust, and accusations suddenly flood the community.
Land of Men (d. Mariam Bakacho Khatchvani) // Georgia, Hungary, 2025, 15'
In the mountain village of Ushguli in Georgia, local customs dictate that in the absence of a son, the family land must be handed over to the next male relative. The film follows the journey of an ambitious singer fighting for her property against outdated local rules, as her song becomes a symbol of struggle against humiliation.
Animafest Zagreb 2026: Experimental and Music Animation & Children's Series
Music in Animation
Tango Ragtime (d. Rastko Ćirić) // Serbia, 1985, 7' – A man interrupts his soup when he is struck by a chattering rhythm and lets his imagination drift into the world of music.
A Gum Boy (d. Masaki Okuda) // Japan, 2010, 3' – An elementary schoolboy, Kuchao, is hated by everyone in his class. When he begins to chew bubble gum, he enters a world of imagination after school where his balloon becomes a face and transforms into various things.
City Deep (d. William Kentridge) // South Africa, 2020, 9' – The decline of the Johannesburg Art Gallery is depicted alongside the daily routine of the zama-zamas, illegal gold miners. The mournful music and the constant sound of digging prophetically herald that something terrible is about to happen.
Futon (d. Yoriko Mizushiri) // Japan, 2012, 6' – Wrapped in a futon, memories flood in, the future is imagined, senses are awakened, and physical feelings of womanhood are deeply ingrained as everything melts pleasantly together.
Around the Lake (d. Noémie Marsily, Carl Roosens) // Belgium, 2013, 5' – A walk around the lake through fragments of lives (the breath of a jogger, a demolished anthill, a sandwich left on a bench) accompanied by the music and lyrics of Carl et les hommes-boîtes.
Deluge (d. Meejin Hong) // USA, 2024, 12' – A slow stampede of a vulnerable mind shown through an ever-evolving landscape where the present inevitably coexists with the past and control is surrendered to mistakes.
The Six (d. Xi Chen, Xu An) // China, 2019, 5' – A repeating visual depiction of a man, a woman, and a crane across six specific scenes.
DONT KNOW WHAT (d. Thomas Renoldner) // Austria, 2018, 8' – A film that plays with form, shifting between live-action and single-frame animation, transforming language into pure music, balancing between avant-garde interest and a humorous approach.
Flamingo (d. Kawo Khan) // Macau, Taiwan, 2019, 8' – The visualization of a three-and-a-half-year recurring dream about driving an uncontrollable vehicle and capturing the emotions behind it.
Two (d. Steven Subotnick) // USA, 2011, 2' – A dynamic visual dialogue entirely based on rhythm, gesture, mark-making, and sound.
Hilgeum: Illusion (d. Jin Woo) // South Korea, 2024, 5' – A suggestive and highly graphic music video with a limited color palette and dark tones that blurs the line between whether strange things are happening inside or outside the observer's head.
Firehouse (d. Bärbel Neubauer) // Germany, 1998, 5' – Metamorphoses of colors and forms created by directly exposing plants and stones with a flashlight onto print stock, set to a soft techno soundtrack.
Passer Passer (d. Louis Morton) // USA, 2013, 3' – A city symphony that celebrates the hidden world of background noise through animation.
Eluvium: Regenerative Being (d. Stas Santimov) // Ukraine, 2017, 7' – A lonely man finds himself in a strange place where everything has already been prepared in advance for his arrival.
Children's Series: Koyaa and the Naughty Objects (d. Kolja Saksida // Slovenia) –
A series of stop-motion animated shorts about a lovable hero, Koyaa, and his friend Mr. Raven, who live on a rocky ledge high above the clouds, where everyday objects come to life and Koyaa must creatively resolve the unexpected situations.
Koyaa - Wild Sunbed (2017, 2') – A sunbed suddenly snaps shut, trapping Koyaa and spitting him out toward the cliff like a cannonball, turning relaxation into a wild rodeo ride.
Koyaa - Elusive Paper (2019, 2') – As Koyaa prepares to paint, the canvas starts folding all by itself, turns into a paper airplane, and flies off.
Koyaa - Jumpy Eraser (2019, 2') – An eraser darts off like a hopping bunny, bouncing all over the place and erasing everything in its path, including the Raven's blueprints.
Koyaa - Slippery Soap (2019, 2') – While washing up, the soap slides out of Koyaa's hands, transforming him into an awkward figure skater on the bathroom floor.
Koyaa - Trippy Trashcan (2019, 2') – A trashcan resists being painted blue, rolls off on its little wheels, and wrecks the newspapers Mr. Raven was using to build his birdhouse.
Koyaa - Creepy Blanket (2023, 3') – On Halloween night, a restless blanket starts quaking and quivering, sending Koyaa flying through the air in the middle of the night.
Koyaa - Happy Fork (2019, 2') – A fork prepared for a summer picnic decides to fly off and buzz around like a bee instead of playing utensil.
Hi Koyaa! (d. Marina Andree Škop) // Slovenia, Croatia, 2017, 11' – This documentary takes the audience behind the scenes of the series' creation. Rooted in the childhood world of author Kolja Saksida, the film shows firsthand how the sets are crafted, how Mr. Raven comes to life, and how the main hero gets his voice and movement, revealing the magic of the animation world as a whole.
