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10-02-2010

EFP Shooting Star Zrinka Cvitesic

By Goran Ivanisevic
    Croatia's first Shooting Star Zrinka Cvitesic (b. Karlovac, Croatia, 1979) is one of leading young female actresses in Croatia.

    Beside being a formally trained actress (graduated in Zagreb in 2002.) she is also an accomplished singer and ballroom dancer. She is employed by the The Croatian National Theatre, where she has appeared in numerous acclaimed productions of plays by Shakespeare, Wilde, Chekhov (awarded for her role in Three Sisters), Molière, Anouilh, Brecht, Büchner and Kane.

    Zrinka made her TV debut in The Big Cleaning by Daniel Kusan in 2001, and her first leading role on the big screen was in Branko Ivanda's historical love drama Horseman (2004), a hit at the national box office and screened at many international festivals. For her role in the romantic comedy, What Is a Man Without a Moustache? by Hrvoje Hribar (2005), she won the national award for best film actress (The Golden Arena) at the Pula Film Festival and the Heart of Sarajevo award as best actress at the 15th Sarajevo Film Festival, while the film was the box office hit of the decade in Croatia. She plays the leading role of Luna in the new film by the Golden Bear winner Jasmila Žbanic's On the Path, which premieres in Competition at the 2010 Berlinale.

    Asked about what she finds compelling about acting for film, she says: "I guess its the relationship between the actor and the camera, in which the camera is my best friend and is giving me an endless number of opportunities, which leads me to the road of the truth of life. I love the power that the camera has in getting through actors's soul. Acting for film is so beautiful in its easiness, you just have to be open and present; the camera will do the rest."

    On the type of roles she is looking for she thinks that she lets them come to her, to find her in a way. "But I guess the answer would be good ones, and not black or white. I love when the part is full of shades between those two colors. I love diversity, and I prefer my next part to be different from previous ones, because I feel great joy in starting from the begining, from level zero" says Zrinka.

    Although she says that the process of preparing the role in her happens "between the lines," she admits that in preparing fpr the her role of Luna in On the Path the most precious thing for her was the seven day clown workshop organised by Jasmila Zbanic and led by Lee Delong. "It helped me become a better person as well as better actress, because it opened me completely and pushed me deeper than I was ever before."


    Her next film is the romantic comedy Bella Biondina by Danijel Marusic, scheduled to premiere at Pula Film Festival in July 2010.