About Rab Film Festival
Rab Film Festival / RAFF is the only festival of investigative film in Croatia and the region. Held every August on the island of Rab, the festival brings together documentary and fiction films that explore reality, open up urgent social questions and create a space for dialogue between filmmakers, journalists, young audiences, guests and the public.
RAFF is built around the idea that cinema is more than a screening. A film can be a meeting point, a question, a conversation and a way of looking more carefully at the world around us. At the heart of the festival are films that investigate hidden or overlooked layers of society, speak about people and events that shape our reality, and remind us that truth needs a place where it can be seen, heard and discussed.
The festival takes place on Rab, an island with a strong cultural and cinematic tradition. Its open-air spaces, summer rhythm, local audience and historic setting are an essential part of the RAFF experience. RAFF is not simply a festival held on Rab – Rab is part of the festival’s identity.
A Festival of Investigative Film
RAFF was created from the belief that investigative film deserves a festival space of its own. The documentary and fiction films shown at the festival deal with themes that demand attention: social injustice, corruption, war, propaganda, media, human rights, memory, ecology, personal freedoms and other questions that define the world we live in.
For RAFF, investigative film is not only a film that delivers information. It is a film that uncovers layers of reality, builds context, questions official narratives and gives the audience a wider view. These films do not end with the closing credits. They continue in conversations, in questions from the audience, in encounters with filmmakers and in the need to keep talking about what has been seen.
This is why dialogue is central to the festival. RAFF brings together filmmakers, journalists, experts, students, young viewers and audiences who expect more from cinema than an evening out. It is a place where films are watched, but also a place where films are discussed.
Rab as a Festival Stage
From the beginning, Rab has been more than the festival’s location. The idea of RAFF grew out of a town with an audience, open-air summer venues, a tradition of watching films and an atmosphere in which festival encounters feel natural.
The island and the town give RAFF its particular scale and character. Screenings, talks, music programmes and informal meetings do not take place inside a closed festival system, but in the rhythm of the town, the summer and the island. RAFF connects its film programme with a setting in which the audience is not just passing through, but becomes an essential part of the festival experience.
Over the years, the festival has developed formats that could only have emerged from Rab itself. One of them is RAFF Seaplex, a unique cinema experience at sea, originally imagined as the festival’s closing night. The programme is currently on pause due to changes in location and logistics, but it remains part of the festival’s imagination and a possible format for future editions.
RAFF Programmes
RAFF is shaped through several programme sections that together define the festival’s identity.
RAFF Cinema
RAFF Cinema is the festival’s central film programme. It presents documentary and fiction films with investigative, artistic and social strength, including titles that have marked major international and regional festivals.
RAFF Talk
RAFF Talk opens space for conversation. Through meetings with filmmakers, journalists, experts and festival guests, RAFF Talk connects films with the questions they raise – from media and propaganda to social change, history, politics and culture.
RAFF Beat
RAFF Beat is the festival’s music programme. Concerts, DJ sets and evening events bring energy to the festival and create a space where audiences, guests and the town meet after the screenings.
RAFF Generation
RAFF Generation is dedicated to young people, students and new generations of audiences. Through workshops, talks and educational formats, the programme introduces young participants to film, media, critical thinking and public dialogue.
RAFF Junior
RAFF Junior is created for the youngest audiences and families. Through films and accompanying activities for children, the festival opens a space for first encounters with cinema and for the development of future audiences.
RAFF Residency
RAFF Residency is a programme for documentary projects in development. It gives filmmakers and producers time, space and focus for their work, while connecting the festival with films that are still taking shape.
Kino Murnau
Kino Murnau is a special programme section dedicated to film heritage, classics and the history of cinema. On Rab, this programme has a particular meaning, connecting the festival with the island’s cinematic memory and broader cultural legacy.
Film Programme and Selection
The RAFF film programme is selected by Vladan Petković, with a focus on films that carry investigative, artistic and social force. The selection is not built only around the novelty of individual titles, but around the questions a film opens, the reasons it should be shown and the kind of conversation it can create with an audience.
RAFF follows international and regional festival production, new authorial voices and films dealing with issues of public interest. For that reason, the film programme is built carefully and gradually, after festival premieres, the availability of titles and the confirmation of guests.
This approach is part of the festival’s identity. RAFF does not look for films simply because they are new, but because they have a reason to be shown now.
RAFF Awards
RAFF includes a competitive film programme and presents festival awards. The best films are selected by a professional jury, while the audience award holds a special place because the relationship between the film and the viewer is one of the foundations of the festival.
The RAFF awards recognise films and filmmakers that combine strong cinematic expression with themes that stay with the audience after the screening. They honour not only directing, writing or production quality, but also the ability of a film to investigate reality, open an important question and encourage public conversation.
For a festival built on the idea that truth needs an audience, the audience award has particular significance. It shows which films have reached viewers most directly, moved them, challenged them or inspired a need to keep talking after the lights come up.
How the Festival Developed
Rab Film Festival was launched in 2019. Since its first edition, it has been organised by Toro Laboratorij and the City of Rab through the Public Open University of Rab.
From the beginning, the festival has developed as a cultural project connecting film, conversation, music, education and the island of Rab. In its earlier editions, RAFF also explored broader festival formats, including gastronomy programmes and special cinema experiences at sea. Over time, its identity has become most clearly shaped around investigative film, public dialogue, music, work with young audiences and support for new documentary projects in development.
The creative force behind the festival is Silvija Jonjić, Robert Tomić Zuber and Zoran Kekić, together with a team of collaborators, partners and volunteers who have contributed to the development and realisation of RAFF since its first edition.
Truth Needs an Audience
RAFF was created from the belief that film can be more than a cultural event. Film can be a space for investigation, testimony, questioning and encounter. It can open themes that are often pushed to the margins, give visibility to voices that are rarely heard and remind audiences that reality should never be taken for granted – it must be watched, understood and questioned.
That is why RAFF is a festival of investigative film. That is why it takes place on Rab. And that is why its central message remains simple:
Truth needs an audience.
RAFF in Brief
Name: Rab Film Festival / RAFF
Launched: 2019
Location: Rab, Croatia
Held: Every August
Focus: Investigative documentary and fiction film
Programmes: RAFF Cinema, RAFF Talk, RAFF Beat, RAFF Generation, RAFF Junior, RAFF Residency, Kino Murnau
Organisers: Toro Laboratorij and the City of Rab through the Public Open University of Rab
Festival Director: Robert Tomić Zuber
Film Programme Selector: Vladan Petković
