Tiny Trembling Bird
Date:
December 18, 2025
Tiny Trembling Bird
Tiny Trembling Bird
by Maja Križnik
December | Slovenia
Incipit Film | Italy
1st feature
Looking for Gap-Financing, Festival Release, Sales Agent
Logline
After their father’s death, three estranged sisters are forced to face their unresolved past and learn how to reconnect, rediscovering what it means to be a family.
Synopsis
A month after their father’s funeral, three estranged sisters reunite to sell the family home. Ema (36), the youngest and most grounded, secretly clings to their parents’ belongings. While driving her late father’s car, she discovers an old cassette filled with the laughter and voices of their childhood — a haunting echo of a happier past.
As the sale moves forward, Rubi (49), the eldest, pursues the carefree life she never had, while Megi (44), overwhelmed by her three kids, impulsively pulls the house off the market. Old resentments flare. Ema, tired of the drama, can’t wait to return to their safe distance of occasional texts.
Then Megi reveals she’s begun chemotherapy — just like their late mother. Rubi quickly retreats, leaving Ema to care for Megi’s children. Awkward at first, she slowly bonds with them and discovers that Megi has hidden her illness behind a “work trip” story. Ema disagrees but stays silent.
Meanwhile, her long-term partner Marko unsettled by this sudden atmosphere of potential loss starts questioning their relationship and the decision not to have children. Ema, defined by her control and independence, finds herself unravelling.
When Megi’s daughter Lara gets hurt, Ema breaks the lie and tells her the truth. The fallout forces Ema to confront her own emotional numbness and the emptiness beneath her carefully built life.
As Megi recovers and moves back into their old family home, Ema is left alone to rebuild. For the first time, she dares to be honest — with Marko, with her sisters, and with herself.
Tender and deeply human, Uncomfortable Beings is a story of three women learning that family isn’t something you inherit — it’s something you choose to keep.
Director’s Profile
Maja Križnik was born in 1986 in Celje. After graduating in Comparative Literature and Philosophy in 2012, Maja pursued studies at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana, specializing in Film and Television Directing. Her graduation film, Little Fish (2016), earned her the Vesna Award for Best Study Film at the 19th Festival of Slovenian Film. She holds a part-time position as a professor at Art High School, where she teaches film studies. In addition, she frequently leads screenwriting workshops for children and young adults and works as an assistant director.
For Uncomfortable Beings, she received script development support from the Slovenian Film Centre. After the project was brought under the wing of December, it received additional support for project development and production. The screenplay was developed through the Scenarnica workshop under the mentorship of Srđjan Koljević in 2020, Goethe Institute’s First Film First program in 2022, mentored by Ildikó Enyedi and Eran Kolirin and EAVE Producer Workshop in 2023.
As a co-writer, she contributed to the animated project Tales from the Magic Garden, a Slovenian-Czech-Slovak-French co-production currently in distribution. As a screenwriter, she is developing the feature film Lady with a Hat, which has received script development support from the Slovenian Film Centre, as well as the short animated film Fin People (produced by URGH!), which secured production support from the Slovenian Film Centre.
Company Profile
December is a Slovenian production company founded in 2013 by producers Vlado Bulajić and Lija Pogačnik. Dedicated to developing and producing fiction and documentary films with distinctive authorial voices, December has produced award-winning works such as Inventory (2021) by Darko Sinko and Bitch, a Derogatory Term for a Woman (2022) by Tijana Zinajić. Recent titles include Fantasy (2023) by Kukla, 2017 by Goran Vojnović, and The Last Cowboy (2024) by Tadej Čater. The company also co-produced acclaimed regional films like Safe Place and Mother Mara. December is currently post-producing Uncomfortable Beings by Maja Križnik and Confirmation by Darko Sinko, while developing Tijana Zinajić’s musical Azra.