Croatian filmmaker Ivona Juka crafts a sweeping historical drama that confronts the cost of artistic freedom and queer desire under political repression, asking what it takes to live truthfully in a system designed to erase difference.

Once inseparable friends as resistance fighters during World War II, Lovro, Nenad, Stevan and Ivan reunite years later as celebrated filmmakers in 1950s communist Yugoslavia. As their success grows, so does suspicion around their sexuality. When a loyal party functionary is assigned to monitor and undermine them, private lives become battlegrounds and creative expression turns into an act of resistance. What begins as surveillance escalates into a brutal struggle for survival.

Selected as Croatia’s submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature, Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day blends intimate character study with harrowing reality. With an understated visual approach and a richly textured soundscape by acclaimed composer Michael Brook, the film immerses audiences in a world where a single evening – or a single day – can alter the course of many lives.