Branko Istvancic
- Director
- Writer
- Editor
![A brother and sister, Miron and Melita, go to visit their friend Zoltan (Liptus) in Kopacevo for winter vacation. The local residents and hunting lodge members there are involved in a big campaign to help the wild animals from the reserve to survive the winter. The same night Miron and Melita arrive, a boy named Halasz is found half-frozen at the edge of the swamp where, he raves, that he was attacked by a white ghost on one of the islands of the swamp. From then on, he can no longer talk. The old woman Etelka reveals the secret that the ghost had been first seen long ago and that you cannot go to the island because the ghost wreaks vengeance on anyone stepping onto the island. Fear takes hold in the place. The hunters, with Vucevic, Kovacevic and Levay taking the lead, begin an investigation however neither they nor the doctors can help Halasz. Therefore Miron, Liptus and Melita decide to find the ghost and offer to carry it off the island to the shore in exchange making their friend well again. However, the ghost shoots and wounds the hunter Levay proving that the ghost is much more dangerous than was previously thought… The film’s story unfolds with the unique landscape of Croatian Nature Park "Kopacki rit" as the backdrop. Over and above the snow-covered Baranja houses with stork nests adorning their chimneys, the unique spirit of the local people, the sounds of tamburitzas and dulcimers and the olds hunters – those precious guardians of nature’s treasures, the children experience an unforgettable adventure. They get to know the wonder of local varieties of flora and fauna as well as the importance of protecting the environment and the animals that live in it… The screenplay was written according to the book by the same title by the popular children’s writer Ante Gardas, whose heroes Miron, Melita and others many have grown up with.](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTk2MDY2NTQzOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMjAzMjQ3Mg@@._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,47,500,281_.jpg)
Graduated film and TV direction at Academy of Dramatic Arts (ADU) in
Zagreb in 1999, his student short Saying Goodbye / Rastanak (1993) was included
in the New Direction programme of The First Film Foundation in London,
a selection of six outstanding films by promising European directors.
Since 2003 he has been permanently working for the national television
(HRT), directing documentaries, educational programmes, series and a
short feature entitled Freeze Frame / Zamrznuti kadar (1999). The award-winning The
Cormorant Scarecrow / Plasitelj kormorana (1998) in 1998 is one of the best Croatian films
in the 1990s. Member of Croatian Film Director's Guild.