General Entry - Emerging Talent Awards

Journey to the center of Histria is a fairy tale-like story based on my visits to the closed, old coal mines in the City of Rasa in Istria, Croatia and it is a part of a large documentary project I've been working on for the last three years. Rasa was built anew in 1936 to serve as a modern, ideal town for the coal mine workers. The coal mines employed more than 10,000 men and women from the region, and at times 1 000 000 tones of coal were extracted yearly. The mines were closed in the '60 and Rasa has lost its purpose and identity. Finally, after the internationally successful Prvomajska factory - that was located inside the mine headquarters buildings - was sold to privates and than closed down during the first years of the new Croatian Republic in the '90, Rasa has become a town without production, jobs of opportunities whatsoever so that the inhabitants are forced to travel to work in nearby cities.