Asja, a 40-year-old single woman, lives in Sarajevo. In order to meet new people, she ends up spending her Saturday in a speed dating event. She’s matched with Zoran, a 43-year-old banker. However, Zoran is not looking for love but forgiveness.

Directed by: Teona Strugar Mitevska

Written by: Elma Tataragić, Teona Strugar Mitevska

Produced by: Labina Mitevska, Danijel Hocevar, Amra Bakšić Čamo, Sebastien Delloye, Vanja Sremac, Maria Møller Christoffersen

Cinematography: Virginie Saint-Martin

Editing: Per K. Kirkegaard

Production Design: Vuk Mitevski

Costume Design: Monika Lorber

Make-Up: Mojca Gorogranc Petrushevska

Sound: Viktor Grabar, Ingrid Simon, Kristoffer Salting

Casting Director: Timka Grin

Cast: Jelena Kordic Kuret, Adnan Omerovic

Original Title: NAJSREKNIOT COVEK NA SVETOT

Film Production Country: North Macedonia

Website: http://inter.pyramidefilms.com/pyramidefilms-international-catalogue/the-happiest-man-in-the-world.html

Statement of the Director/s
What defines us: our ethnicity, religion, gender? What divide us or unite us? This is a story about precariousness of life, the chance encounters bringing together the aggressor and the victim, reviving the painful past; this is a story of impossible connections, of love and absurdity. The film starts as a humor driven excursion and develops into a mountain of experiences. The natural rhythm is primordial and it’s tightly connected to the human inquiry techniques while seeking truth after violence. I see this film as a symphony of choreographed movements unpacking layers of emotions that slowly entangle the viewer to a point of vertigo like state. Location is essential: an 80’s style hotel, a witness to Ex-Yugoslav architectural style: concrete brutalism or modernism, and then there is the injured city of Sarajevo, a testament to open wounds and past pains.

Biography of the Director/s
Macedonian born Teona Strugar Mitevska started as a child actor, trained as a painter and graphic designer and studied film at NYU-Tisch School of Arts. She directed her first short, VETA, in 2001, and has been making films ever since: HOW I KILLED A SAINT, 2004; I AM FROM TITOV VELES, 2007; THE WOMAN WHO BRUSHED OFF HER TEARS, 2012; TERESA AND I, 2013; WHEN THE DAY HAD NO NAME, 2017 and most recently, GOD EXISTS, HER NAME IS PETRUNYA that premiered in competition in Berlin Film Festival 2019, where it was awarded the Ecumenical Prize, as well at the German Guild Film Prize. Until today the film has received more than 30 awards internationally, most notably the 2019 LUX Prize by the European Parliament and was sold for theatrical release to over 40 territories world-wide. In 2018, France’s Ministry of Culture awarded her the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Letters. Her sixth feature film, THE HAPPIEST MAN THE WORLD, premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival and the 2022 Toronto Film Festival. The film has won more than a dozen of prizes internationally, the Grand Jury prize and the Young Jury prize at the 2022 Les Arcs film festival, as well as Best Actress at the 2023 Brussels Film Festival, among others, and has been theatrically released to over 15 territories worldwide until now. 21 DAYS UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD is her newest film; she is currently in pre-production of MOTHER, her first English language film.
Teona Strugar Mitevska lives between Skopje and Brussels.

Filmography of the Director/s
2004 - HOW I KILLED A SAINT, Feature
2008 - I AM FROM TITOV VELES, Feature
2012 - THE WOMAN WHO BRUSHED OFF HER TEARS, Feature
2017 - WHEN THE DAY HAD NO NAME, Feature
2019 - GOD EXISTS, HER NAME IS PETRUNYA, Feature
2022 - HE HAPPIEST MAN THE WORLD, Feature

Production Company:
Sisters and brother mitevski
Labina Mitevska
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: +38907790688
Website: www.sistersandbrothermitevski.com

World Sales:
Pyramide
Alberto Alvarez Aguilera
E-Mail: [email protected]
Website: http://inter.pyramidefilms.com/pyramidefilms-international-catalogue/the-happiest-man-in-the-world.html