Commissioned & events

Istria, the wine country

Name: Istria, the wine country
Released: 2012

2012 · multi-platform documentary-led wine-region branding initiative · audiovisual cultural-development project

Cross-platform cultural project framing Istrian wine heritage as film, travel, and digital storytelling.

Višeplatformski kulturni projekt koji istarsko vino pretvara u film, putopis i digitalnu priču.

Istria, the wine country — production still

This project credentials: Cross-media & events

Notes from the producer

We took the Istrian wine country and, instead of shooting one documentary about it, tried to build the whole thing at once - a feature, TV films, a web series, a travelogue, an interactive map, events - with Bojan Kanjera and under Aning. On paper it was a lot. In practice it got further into real rooms than a project that size usually does: the IDFA forum in 2012, a co-production deal signed with EastWest in Vienna at the Berlinale in early 2013, Cannes and the MAIA workshops that same year.

The financing was meant to stand on Vinistra and HAVC, with the winemakers in as partners, not extras. By the middle of 2013 it was clear the summer launch was not going to happen, so I wrote that down and asked Vinistra for a small bridge to carry it into 2014 rather than fake momentum. That bridge, and the financing behind it, never closed, and the slate never went into production. What the project did prove is that we could develop and package a regional asset to an international standard and get it taken seriously - which, honestly, is most of the job in this country.

- Matija Radeljak

The story

Istra, zemlja vina - developed internationally as Stories with Wine - began in late 2012 as a refusal to treat a region as a postcard. Matija Radeljak and Bojan Kanjera, working through Aning usluge d.o.o., built the Istrian wine country not as a single film but as a coordinated slate: a feature documentary for cinema, two TV documentaries, a web series, a live travelogue, an interactive map of Istria, mobile tools, and public events, all feeding one online platform. A single branding image made the ambition explicit, placing ISTRA on the same signpost as Bordeaux, Toscana, Baden, La Rioja, Stellenbosch, and Napa - global intent stated without apology.

For a small Croatian outfit, the package traveled unusually far, unusually fast. It reached the IDFA documentary forum in Amsterdam in November 2012; at the Berlinale in February 2013 it produced its first concrete result, a co-production agreement signed with EastWest Filmdistribution Wien, the Vienna sales house run by Sasha Wieser; in May 2013 it was presented at Cannes and carried into MAIA Workshops, the EU-backed producer development programme, from May to September. Igor Princic came on as a co-production partner and Transmedia was lined up as a further co-producer. The slate was still forming its production spine, but it was already being read in the rooms where international documentaries get financed. That is the real service the project demonstrates: development and cross-border co-production packaging of a regional cultural asset.

The financing was layered by design. A Phase I plan set 390.000,00 kn of financing against a 393.303,93 kn cost sheet, with honoraria and technical equipment as the heaviest lines. Above it sat a broader 2.990.000,00 kn structure that leaned on HAVC (720.000 HRK), Vinistra (660.000 HRK), sponsorship (600.000 HRK), the regional tourist board (400.000 HRK), and public, local and EU lines, with a revenue projection of 3.140.000,00 HRK dated 1 July 2013. The whole architecture was anchored to Vinistra, the Istrian winemakers' association, which made the winemakers themselves stakeholders rather than subjects.

Then the calendar caught up with the money. By mid-2013 a summer launch was no longer realistic, and the team said so in writing rather than pretending otherwise: postpone activation to the 2014 pre-season and ask Vinistra for a small bridge - 35.800,00 HRK, around 40.000 kn - to hold continuity from August 2013 through March 2014. The archive ends on that honest note. The project was creatively advanced, internationally networked, and financially unclosed; the full slate never reached production.

What remains is not a finished film but a proof of capacity - a regional wine identity developed into festival-market shape and carried into a signed international co-production deal, which is exactly the kind of development and packaging work that most small-country projects never manage to reach.

Milestones

2012-10 — Development begins on Istra, zemlja vina (Stories with Wine) at Aning usluge d.o.o.
2012-11 — Project presented at the IDFA documentary forum, Amsterdam
2013-02 — First co-production agreement signed at the Berlinale with EastWest Filmdistribution Wien
2013-03 — Project presented to Vinistra leadership
2013-05 — Presented at Cannes and selected for MAIA Workshops producer training (May-September 2013)
2013-07 — Phase I financing plan set and revenue projection of 3.140.000,00 HRK dated 1 July 2013
2013-08 — Launch postponed to the 2014 pre-season; bridge support requested from Vinistra

Outcomes

International development exposure — Presented at the IDFA documentary forum in Amsterdam (November 2012).
Signed co-production agreement — First co-production agreement signed at the Berlinale in February 2013 with EastWest Filmdistribution Wien.
Market and training track — Presented at Cannes in May 2013 and selected for MAIA Workshops producer development training (May-September 2013).
Launch postponed, financing not closed — The 2013 summer launch did not proceed; the team proposed a 2014 pre-season relaunch with Vinistra bridge support, and the financing structure was never closed.

Credits

Matija Radeljak — Author and producer
Bojan Kanjera — Author and producer
Sasha Wieser — Co-production and sales partner (EastWest Filmdistribution Wien)
Igor Princic — Co-production partner
Aning usluge d.o.o. — Lead production company
Transmedia ltd. — Prospective co-producer