At the train station in Jesenice, Samir waits for an international train that will bring his father back to him. Some months earlier, his father had left for the battlefield in Bosnia. The year is 1992, the war at the heart of Yugoslavia is raging, and the news reaching Slovenia is deeply distressing. Samir’s mother receives word that her calm and unproblematic son has damaged a train. Unbothered, Samir is in no hurry to go home and accepts his friend Zoran’s invitation to play basketball. Zoran’s father invites them to lunch, which arouses in Samir a feeling of powerlessness and reminds him of his father, who is still away. When Samir returns home, he is met by his angry mother, who insists they go to the train station to address the accusations about the damaged train. In the station manager’s office, they confront Samir’s vandalistic acts. This confrontation ultimately forces Samir to face the truth about his father.
Armin Čulić (1995) holds a degree in nursing but is, above all, a cinephile, actor, screenwriter, and director. He is currently pursuing an MA in film directing at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana. He has worked on more than fifteen film projects in various capacities.
In 2020, he made blackanimal69, an experimental film that premiered at the 23rd Festival of Slovenian Film and received numerous awards. In 2017, he was selected for the Kratka Scena screenwriting workshop with one of his first screenplays. At the 2022 edition of the same workshop, he developed the screenplay for his short film Waiting for the Train. In 2023, he was chosen for the international screenwriting workshop Talent Short Film Lab, which consisted of several modules, one of which took place in Cannes.
Waiting for the Train is his directorial debut in short fiction film. In April 2026, the film had its international premiere at FilmFest Dresden, one of the most prestigious film festivals in Europe for short films.
