The shooting of the children’s feature Spacehead, directed by Marina Andrea Škop and Vanda Raýmanova and written by Juraj Raýman began last weekend in Zagreb. Spacehead is produced by PomPom Film (Croatia) and Objectif (Slovakia), with minority partners Senca Studio (Slovenia) and Air Productions (Latvia).

Spacehead is a story about ten-year-old Alice and her older autistic brother Milan, who, together with three little detectives, fall into a somewhat surreal adventure.

The group of young actors is led by Marta Mihanović in the role of Alice and Maks Kleončić in the role of Milan. Apart from them, the little detectives are played by Andrija Lamot, Mark Spiridonović and Martin Pišlar.

“This film is imbued with a multitude of comic elements, and we plan to tell it in a wacky, stylized film language,” said Marina Andree Škop. “Through an adventure story with strong children’s characters, a humorous approach, an unconventional visual style, and a combination of live-action and animated film elements, we want to entertain young audiences, and at the same time present them with a very serious and important topic, autism,” concluded the director and producer.

“Marina and I come from two different film worlds, my focus is animated films, while hers is children’s features,” added Vanda Raýmanová. “What binds us is a strong desire to combine these two approaches in order to create this unique film together. With it, we primarily want to sow the seeds of empathy and understanding in the minds of our young viewers, without suffocating them with moralizing, but to provide them with an unforgettable film experience, with which they will laugh and fear, and intuitively understand that they can learn a lot from those who are different.”

Spacehead is written by Slovak screenwriter Juraj Raýman, and produced by Tibor Keser, Marina Andree Škop, and Vanda Raýmanová. It is planned to be released in cinemas in 2026.

The roles of adult characters are interpreted by Slovenian actors Ajda Smrekar and Matej Puc, Slovak actors Csongor Cassai and Gabriela Dzuríkova and Croatian actors Judita Franković Brdar, Borko Perić, Snježana Sinovčić, Dražen Čuček, Slavko Sobin and Željko Duvnjak.

Members of the creative team are Tomislav Sutlar, director of photography; Stefano Katunar, set designer; Zorana Mejić, costume designer; Mojca Gorogranc Petrushevska, make-up artist; Michal Struss, animation director; Krsto Jaram, 3D animator; Marko Terešak, lighting master; Luka Čabo, sound engineer and many other associates.

Spacehead is produced by PomPom Film (Croatia) and Objectif (Slovakia), with minority partners Senca Studio (Slovenia) and Air Productions (Latvia). The delegated producer is PomPom Film.

The film was co-financed by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the Slovak Audiovisual Fund, the Slovenian Film Centre, the National Film Centre of Latvia, Creative Europe MEDIA, Croatian Radiotelevision, Radio and Television Slovakia and Viba Film.

(Photo credit: Vladimira Spindler)