As part of the 26th Mediterranean Film Festival, the audience at the Borak cinema theatre will have the opportunity to watch the first scenes from the film ''The Conspirators'', directed by Bobby B. Grubić, based on the theatre play of the same name by Miro Gavran, on Friday, October 10, after the award ceremony for the best films in the competition.

The story centers on the tragic death of Croatian noblemen Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan. The main theme is their final night, April 29, 1691, on the eve of their execution in Wiener Neustadt.

“When I wrote the short play “The Conspirators” back in 1983, which explores the final night of Zrinski and Frankopan before their execution in the dungeon of Wiener Neustadt, I could not have imagined that, four decades later, I would return to the same topic—this time in the much more complex form of a film script," said Gavran.

He stated that he had previously collaborated with director Grubić on the short feature film Solitude, which was precisely the reason they both wanted to continue working together on a feature-length film. They were both drawn to the topic of the Zrinski-Frankopan conspiracy, which, as he noted, was of fateful importance for the Croatian people.

“This film is an exceptionally demanding and exciting project: a screen adaptation of the historical story of Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan, with universal themes of freedom, betrayal, sacrifice, and the cost of dignity. I often describe it as the Croatian Braveheart — not as a copy, but due to its emotional and thematic similarities: a people standing up to a superior force, brotherhood and the personal stakes of the heroes, the fight for political and cultural freedom, and a tragic catharsis,” explained director Grubić, a three-time Emmy Award winner.

For the purposes of test shoots and promotional materials, they selected two veterans of Croatian theatre and film — Goran Grgić as Petar Zrinski and Bojana Gregorić Vejzović as Katarina Zrinski — along with two actors from the younger generation, Matea Marušić as Julija Zrinski and Jakov Gavran as Fran Krsto Frankopan.