The Girl Who Wasn’t Afraid of Bears

Beyond the hills and valleys, deep in the wilderness, stands a hut where a father lives with his three daughters. The elder two dare not leave home, frightened by their father's tales of a monstrous beast lurking in the forest. But the youngest daughter is different. She longs for freedom, for the unknown. When she comes of age, she grabs her father’s sword and flees into the darkness of the forest. There, she confronts the beast that haunts her sisters and defeats it—only to discover that the truth is far more complicated than she ever imagined. Unwavering, she rides into the world, where trials, dangers, and revelations await her. This is a story of courage, identity, and the unpredictable journey of self-discovery.

Director’s statement
The Girl Who Wasn’t Afraid of Bears is a short animated film based
on an old Balkan folktale, adapted from the comic book by Izar Lunaček and illustrator Dora Benčevič. When I first encountered their work, I was captivated by Izar’s storytelling and Dora’s rich, symbolic drawings — I immediately knew this world had to become a film.
Set in a magical realm and meant to evoke a sense of adventure and discovery, the film draws on the language of Westerns — a genre long dominated by male heroes — and subverts it into a female one. Through a female protagonist and a distinctly feminine gaze, we wanted to explore that familiar world from a different viewpoint. At its heart, The Girl Who Wasn’t Afraid of Bears is about courage, identity, and the journey of finding one’s place in the world
— an adventure that belongs to all of us.