Skies above the landscape

One of the first Bosnian movies I ever watched was Neba iznad krajolika (Skies above the landscape). I had no idea, in 2007, when I watched that movie, not even able to understand the dialogue, that in 2011 I would be a talk show host on a Bosnian TV station working with the director! heh. Life is seriously funny sometimes. (Ironically, the movie is about a foreign girl who comes to Bosnia…). Anyway, a supermarket here in Bratunac was selling the dvd. Nostalgia.

The director is Nenad Djuric (“Djuro”), a really great guy. I dug up an old interview that I did with Djuro sometime in 2011. I had had an idea to write an article about the state of the Bosnian film industry but never got around to finishing it. The text of the interview is in English below the audio. (You can listen to him talk in Bosnian while you read the translation! it’s cooler that way…)

“This is a totally Bosnian film, although thank god it also communicated with a foreign audience. The idea of a foreign girl falling from the sky and meeting an illiterate shepherd just randomly occurred to me one day, and from there I developed the story– what would happen in the event of such a meeting? My audience at the end of the day is Bosnian people. I can say almost for sure that everyone in Bosnia has seen my movie. Kids, hicks, losers, people from the provinces, priests, abbots…. shamans! Ordinary people, elderly people, hunchbacks, city people and everyone else. Therefore, my movie communicated with the public to whom it was truly dedicated. It wasn’t a niche film. It was made without a penny of foundation financing, without foreign financing… It got made through magic and tricks– but that can only happen once…”

(I love how Djuro wants his work to be accessible. In his documentary/tv work he was all about giving ordinary people a voice; he’s an intellectual but not an elitist. I find that so inspiring!)

Another time I’ll tell you about the film Djuro is working on now! And upload another short interview. I translated the screenplay for that one so I was excited to hear that filming is starting these days.