Aquarium

Davor Penčič, Maja Penčič / Czech Republic / 2026 / World Premiere / 29 min.

synopsis

The living room as a stage, the family as a world enclosed behind glass. Maja Penčič assembles her father’s home videos into a portrait of childhood unfolding in the rhythm of holidays, games, meals and television broadcasts. Long, static shots bring out everyday details and the significance of moments spent waiting. Toddlers demand their father’s attention, a child reaches for the camera, presents lie ready beneath the Christmas tree. A voice from the television intrudes on these familiar scenes, reporting on weapons and politics. The family archive becomes a vehicle for reflection on the limits of a private world that the camera both preserves and exposes to the gaze of others.

“Daddy, daddy, daddy.”

biography

Maja Penčič is a Czech filmmaker with Balkan roots who studies documentary filmmaking at FAMU. Her short film Passportless Mess (2022) premiered at Portugal’s Doclisboa festival, where it received an honourable mention from the jury. She previously competed in the Czech Joy section with her feature debut Minimum Love (2025), which was subsequently screened at the Swiss festival Visions du Réel.

Davor Penčič was born in Sarajevo, from where he fled during the civil war in the 1990s. For the following thirty years, he earned a living in Prague selling small goods at flea markets, on the street, and at funfairs. In 2008, he filmed seven static shots of his family in their living room, which his daughter used in 2026 to create the film Aquarium. He currently lives in Belgrade and Mostar.