The Melon Route - Branko Schmidt - Croatia

Airing times The Melon Route (Put lubenica, 2006) Croatia Director: Branko Schmidt Cast: Kresimir Mikic, Mei Sun, Leon Lucev Presentation: To reach a country or a continent with better working conditions and standards of living has been always a goal for those in the edge. A breeding ground for human traffickers, such problem leads to freedom, tragedy, and love. Eurochannel invites you to the Serbian and Bosnian border to meet a Chinese woman in her pursuit for a safe future in The Melon Route. Directed by the renowned Croatian filmmaker Branko Schmidt, The Melon Route film tells the story of an illegal Chinese immigrant who travels along a group of compatriots and his family on the Bosnian/Croatian border along the 'Melon Route', a human trafficking pathway to Western Europe. After their boar capsizes, the finds herself alone in a foreign country, and must do everything to survive, while falls in love with a former soldier. The film is inspired by the true story of twelve illegal Chinese immigrants who drowned in the river Sava on the border of Bosnia and Croatia during the war of the 90's.  By bringing to light the problem of human trafficking and its ruthless world, The Melon Route also deals with the language and cultural barriers by adding a romantic dimension to the film as the protagonists fall in love with each other, but realize that it is hard to carry an inescapable burden: one's place of birth remains. Enjoy a film that brings to the viewer's mind a combination between Alejandro González Iñárritu's Biutiful and Larysa Kondracki's The Whistleblower, in a poignant story of love, redemption and human greed.     Synopsis: For the local mafia, Mirko (Kresimir Mikic) smuggles people over the river Sava, in the Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian border, to the West. His overloaded boat capsizes, and the smuggled Chinese people in it drown. Only a young Chinese woman survives, and Mirko decides to hide her. Under her influence, Mirko experiences a change in life. But the Chinese woman is a witness and the mafia kidnaps her with the help of the head of the local police, who is Mirko's uncle. Airing times