Near Koprivnica in Croatia's Podravina region, the asphalt sometimes stops dead at the village sign. That image stuck with geographer Vedran Šikić as he cycled through settlements most locals couldn't even name — and it helped spark Disappearing Homeland, a documentary now fighting for funds to reach the screen.
The project set simple criteria: every village with fewer than 50 residents in the 2021 census, within a 20-kilometre radius of Koprivnica. Šikić verified figures on the ground and ended up with 37 villages. Their combined population has collapsed from more than 2,500 thirty years ago to under 1,000 today. The smallest, Mali Botinovac, has six residents. Most are overwhelmingly elderly, with patchy internet, poor transport links and little to keep young people — though Vojvodinac bucks the trend, with over 30% of residents under 19.
The film, two years in the making with director Vedran Štefan of TETRABOT, has logged more than 20 hours of footage and 25-plus interviews. But it's not just a record of emptying houses. It captures a layered local history: descendants of settlers from Hrvatsko Zagorje who came seeking work before and after World War Two, and villages where Catholic and Orthodox families lived side by side for decades. One elderly woman in Velika Branjska, moved to tears, described her Orthodox neighbour from Zagorje as the best person in the world.
There's also a travel angle worth noting. Podravina has fertile plains along the Drava, the Bilogora hills and the Kalnik foothills — yet across all 37 villages there are exactly three holiday homes, all in Segovina. Šikić thinks that's a missed opportunity: with better infrastructure, the area could suit agritourism and a "Village 2.0" model, where older farming residents coexist with younger families working in nearby towns 15–30 minutes away.
To finish the film — editing 20 hours of material, original music, sound design, colour grading and animated historical maps — the team estimates costs of €60,000–70,000. Local funding from Koprivnica and neighbouring municipalities plus company donations raised just under €15,000, and after missing out on Croatian Audiovisual Centre support, they've launched a crowdfunding campaign on Bona Fides Invest seeking another €15,000. Contributions start at €10, tiered into categories from Donors to Guardians of Heritage, with names credited in the film. You can even sponsor a specific village — a fitting way to keep one of these places on the map.
For travellers with roots in the region or an interest in rural Croatia beyond the coast, this is both a film to watch for and a reason to detour inland before these communities become footnotes.
