News

Press Report / Day 5

20.07.2023.

Ana Konstantinović: "Our idea was to deal with everyday heroes"

On the fifth day of the 30th Palić European Film Festival, on Wednesday, July 19, at the media conference on the Great Terrace, speakers were: Bettina Brokemper, producer of the film "Ingeborg Bachmann - Journey into the Desert"; Davide Rizzo, director of the film "After the Bridge"; Sergiu Cumatrenco, producer of the film "Carbon"; Mátyás Prikler, director of the film "Power"; the crew of the film "The Ways of the Heroes" - director Ana Konstantinović, screenwriter Tamara Baračkov, and Željko Maksimović; Ádám Tősér, director of the film "Blockade"; Snježana Mitrović, moderator and organizer of the environmental panel discussion "Consequences of the Use of Depleted Uranium Ammunition in NATO Aggression in 1999 - Inspiration for Filmmakers" and Stefan-Dimitrije Dimić, representative of the Sremski Karlovci Film Festival.

Bettina Brokemper, producer of the "Ingeborg Bachmann - Journey into the Desert" directed by Margarethe von Trotta, screened in the Official Selection out of competition, spoke about the creation of this film: "The production was simple - the story of a woman, a poet, who was ahead of her time, one of the first female voices in post-war Germany… so everyone was ready. We had a good argument - it was an untold story, there weren't even pictures of Ingeborg Bachmann and Max Frisch together, which only now appeared. Now letters have also appeared, which were not available to us and were not allowed to be read. There were those who wanted the film to be more a Max Frisch story, but we managed to find a way for the film to tell what Margarethe wanted".

Sergiu Cumatrenco, producer of the "Carbon" by Ion Borș, shown in the "Parallels and Encounters" section, spoke about the genre structure of the film, which is set in Moldova in the early nineties, when there was an actual war on the border with Transnistria. "In the beginning, we wanted to make a drama. However, during the preparation of the film, we talked to people from the area where the action takes place, who told us a lot of stories with a comical edge. It was sad information, but with a lot of self-irony. From that moment on, we started adopting this approach in the script. Some see this film as a comedy, and some don't because they understand the metaphor. Everything is in the eye of a spectator".

Mátyás Prikler, the director of the "Power" from the same section, in his production referred to a true event from Slovak public life. "There was indeed one case where it is still not known what exactly happened. The media wrote about the murder of a young man during a hunt, in which the former president of Slovakia participated. The film dealt with that event for a few minutes at the beginning, but the role of this film is not to be a documentary because we are not investigative journalists. We wanted to see what a country or system looks like, with a minister whom we assume is ethically correct, but the question is what the government system does, when it needs to protect an important person".

Ana Konstantinović, director of the "The Ways of the Heroes" shown in the "Eco Dox" section, said about the idea of this documentary: "Our idea was to deal with everyday heroes, people who are around us, who are somehow invisible, but make an immeasurable contribution to our communities, primarily in an ecological sense. Our search for heroes was in that direction - to find people doing something we can identify with. We found over 50 such people, from whom we came to 12 protagonists in this omnibus".

On the sixth day of the Festival, on Thursday, July 20, at the Summer Stage in Palić, in the Official Selection, the film "Inside" by Vasilis Katsoupis will be screened at 9 p.m., and "Three Thousand Numbered Pieces" by Ádám Császi will be screened at 11 p.m. Before the start of the first screening, the Regional Lifka will be awarded to the Macedonian actor Nikola Ristanovski and the Underground Spirit Award to the Spanish multimedia artist Maria Cañas. "Parallels and Encounter" program, at the Abazija Cinema in Palić presents "Embryo-Larva-Butterfly" by Kyros Papavassiliou (5 p.m.) and "Do you love me?" by Tonia Noyabrova.