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For journalists, especially those who cover film production, Stefan Arsenijević has always been a well-liked collocutor: smiling, pleasant, kind, patient, polite and above all talented in the highest sense of the word. This young man thrilled us several years ago when he was awarded the Golden Bear and nominated for an Oscar. It was immediately clear how fortunate we were to have him.
Stefan Arsenijević recently presented his first feature film Love and Other Crimes in Berlin, the first in a series of great international festivals.
- Love and Other Crimes had its world premiere in February at the 58th Berlin Festival. What were your first impressions regarding its reception and people’s reactions to the film, and what are your impressions today? |
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- There were butterflies in my stomach because it was a world premiere, the first time that an audience saw the film. Then came euphoria, which continues to this day. I am still trying to compose my thoughts and make up for lost sleep. If I were to summarise: the public reacted according to my highest wishes; all five projections in Berlin were sold out, Screen and Variety published excellent reviews. What more could one wish for?
- You are a favourite of the Berlin Festival, especially after having won the Golden Bear for the short film (A)Torzija. In Germany they love you as a young director. How much has this helped you in, let’s say, creating this film and your previous one, the omnibus Lost-Found?
- I was lucky in that one film led to another. After (A)Torzija I got an offer along with five other young East-European filmmakers to participate in the omnibus Lost-Found which in 2005 opened the Forum Berlinale. Following its premiere, the German co-producer offered to produce my first feature film. This initiative pushed me into the adventure called Love and Other Crimes.
- Expectations were quite high, perhaps yours were the highest concerning the possibility of winning in the category of debutants. This was especially true since one member of the jury was Jasmila Žbanić, who directed Grbavica and was one of the co-directors of the omnibus Lost-Found, which was a career starter for all three of you, but Christian Mungiu was the winner at Cannes. What happened? Who was not especially thrilled with the film?
- Simply, the Japanese film was better! Indeed, at the very beginning of my career I won many significant awards….Many older and more experienced filmmakers cannot claim as much. What sort of man would I be if after all this I were greedy for awards?
- You were in competition with Madonna i.e. with her debut Filth and Wisdom. Have you met her in person and what is it like to compete with a megastar?
- It is not easy to meet megastars. I heard from a man who, as guest manager, was in charge of her and me. He said that Madonna did not even come to her party after the premiere. Strange is the life of great stars. However, whenever I hear Madonna on the radio I think – a colleague! Funny, really!
- All your actors were in Berlin to back the film, Milena Dravić, Anica Dobra, Vuk Kostić and Fedja Stojanović. Watching the film it looks as though you wrote the roles just for them?
- This is my third film with Milena and Fedja. And I really had them in mind when I wrote the screenplay, as well as Anica. Though we had not previously worked together, the role was written for her. To Vuk, my classmate from the faculty, we arrived through extensive casting. It was very important that the actor interpreting this role exhibit a special chemistry with Anica, because this is, above all, a melodrama. At the test shooting, when I saw Vuk and Anica in the same frame, I knew instantly that we had found our actor! I am happy that they came to the world premiere and were able to feel that first contact between the film and the audience. I know how much they have invested in this film, how much they have risked playing these roles that are so different from those they usually play. I had more butterflies out of fear that I might disappoint them. When the audience reacted so well, I could relax. We could rejoice together.
- I must say that Love and Other Crimes is almost shockingly dark and somber, terrible and tragic, the more so because it comes from a successful young director as you undoubtedly are. Personally, I find it to be a great quality of the film, but it still surprises me where such deep sorrow from comes?
- Interestingly, this is a question that only journalists and critics from this region ask. Other critics emphasize the balance between the spiritual and tragic. The audience occasionally laughs loudly during projection. It is interesting to me, this paradox I mean. I must have hit something really accurate that is especially painful to people from this region who have lived through such things. This film somehow came from the stomach. When I was about to make this first feature film, it was like suddenly the concentrate poured out of me, the synthesis of everything we had been through in the last years. And are still going through. In the last 15 years nearly a half a million young people have left this country and they are still leaving it. Perhaps this interview will be read by someone in the airplane who is also leaving for good. On the other side, 80 percent of young people living in Serbia have never been abroad due to the impossibility of obtaining visas or a lack of money… What is their view of the world? See, these two dry facts are sufficient.
- My generation has just entered their thirties and I am afraid that we are becoming a lost generation. Sorry, I can’t smile at this. For me, this film was a chance for catharsis.
- How do you see the future of your film? Are you going to present it worldwide? Plase tell us what your future plans are.
- We have received invitations for a series of festivals and the film now starts its festival life. I’ll follow it at a few of them because I have begun work on a new short film which I will shoot in Belgrade and Berlin in July in codirection with my German colleague and comrade Dietrich Bruggemann. It will be an interesting form, something I haven’t done before and I am very happy about this.
- Can you tell us how you actually achieved all this? When you were very young, you had very different plans and wishes, didn’t you? So, what was the turning point, how did it happen that you entered the sphere of art, the realm of the seventh art, where you are now not only as a director and screenplay writer but also as one of the owners of the production house Art and Popcorn?
- I have always wanted to work on films. In nursery school I became a real sensation for teachers when I announced that when I grew up I wanted to be an actor. This pretending that you are somebody else, somewhere else, making up stories, creating new worlds and still remaining faithful to one’s self is something that still amuses and excites me very much. Actually, I am still playing…
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