FNE at KVIFF 2010 East of the West: The Woman with a Broken Nose

02-07-2010

FNE at KVIFF 2010 East of the West: The Woman with a Broken Nose

By Pavlina Jeleva

Recognized as talented Serbian scriptwriter (The Trap, 2007, Love and Other Crimes, 2008) and original film director (The Red Colored Grey Truck, 2004) the Sarajevo born Srđan Koljevićgave his second feature the peculiar title The Woman with a Broken Nose.

The more than €1.3 M film is a co-production between Serbian company Baš Čelik (www.bascelik.net) and German company Neue Mediopolis (www.neue-mediopolis.de) and their second collaboration after SrđanGolubović's The Trap. German producer Alexander Ris noted he was convinced by Srđan's story "already from the outset."

{mosimage}The story about a suicide attempt of a womanon the Belgrade bridge after leaving her baby in a cab and the follow up of the witnesses -- a taxi driver, a high school teacher and a pharmacist -- received numerous grants from public funds. The Serbian National FilmFund (www.fcs.rs) participated with 24.49 % (€325,000) to which the City of Belgrade(www.beograd.rs ) added an 11.30% share (€150,000). From the GermanMMM (www.mdm-online.de) came €400,000 (30.14%) followed by€180,000(13.94%) from ZDF/ARTE (www.arte.tv) andBerlin-Brandenburg (www.medienboard.de) with €80,000 (6%).

The shooting of the film, in which according to writer/director Koljevic the witness characters "overcome their words from the past and discover their suppressed emotions," lasted eight weeks and took place between October and December 2008 in Belgrade and Erfurt. Three additional shooting days for background shots after principal photography were needed, but they were hindered by a snow melt last February. The crew had to stay stand by until June 2009, when finally the appropriate grey sky and heavy rain appeared. This brought a delay of the postproduction.

As it often happens with Serbian talents from the younger generationSrđan Koljević is fascinated by contemporary Belgrade, with "its people in strong emotional transition trying to fix their messed up lives." He describes his film as a "road movie within a city, with Belgrade portrayed in a new, slightly different way. ...A dose of humour was of the utmost importance to us," Koljević adds.

The film was firstly shown this June at the Cinema City Film Festival in Novi Sad (www.cinemacity.org) where it won the National competition grabbing the Grand Prix and attracting massive approval for its "witty comment on life in multicultural Belgrade of today."

The mixed Serbian/German cast and crew includes first rank talents such as L.A.-based Serbian Branka Katić, known for her performance opposite Johnny Depp in Michael Mann's Dillinger, Nada Šargin(Tomorrow Morning by Oleg Novkovic, 2006), Nenad Lipanović who designed the costumes, and Mario Schneider, who wrote the music.

The rights for the international sales belong toAktis Film International (www.aktis-film.com)

{mosimage}Script: Srđan Koljević

Director: Srđan Koljević

Director of Photography: Goran Volarević

Art Directors: Zorana Petrov, Lana Prolić

Costumes: Nenad Lipanović

Music: Mario Schneider

Sound: Sebastian Schmidt, Erik Mischijew

Editing: Marko Glusac

Producers: Jelena Mitrovic, Srdan Golubovic, Alexander Ris, Joerg Rothe

CAST:

Gavrilo: Nebojša Glogovac