For film director Srdan Golubović, this means his work is still yielding results, but at this time has no opinion of his film and can’t discuss how it was understood by audiences at festivals abroad.
"When all the festivals are done, and that will be in about a year, I will sit down once more and look at the film, and only then will I perhaps have a new perception of my work. I’ve spent too much time immersed in all this to see the film again at this point."
As many as three American companies are presently interested in purchasing screening rights for a remake of The Trap.
"The whole story is interesting in that I think a remake would shed new light on the original and would instill it with much greater publicity than it now enjoys in the United States. The offers state that the budget of a remake would range between 12 and 18 million euros (The Trap cost 1.2 million euros), which by American standards is a low budget. In view of the story portrayed in The Trap, this is a very good budget, which also implies engaging some well known actors."
How long has it been since you last saw your film?
"A long time. I didn’t see the premiere at the Belgrade Film Festival (FEST), nor at the Berlin film festival… In fact, the last time I watched it was in the lab when I completed it. I watched parts of it; went to a movie theater, saw a bit of it and then left."
How does the tragic story about the destruction of the middle class here, and the powerlessness of a middle-class family to raise 26,000 euros for an operation for a sick child, aff ect audiences abroad?
"I believe the main feature, and the film’s strongest point, lies in the fact that this story is universal, and by this very virtue, it is recognisable. Somewhere, this heart operation costs 26,000 euros, somewhere 50,000 euros and somewhere 300,000 euros, but the underlying essence of such a misfortune is always the same. The suffering only differs with regard to cost. What at the beginning appears to be the film’s handicap – this is a work the West does not expect because it is not a story about how people in the West think – now gradually becomes its main quality. The Trap is not a film that attempts in any way to play up to western audiences. Quite the contrary. It is a film that portrays an image of us that is quite unfamiliar for people in the West. In my view, this is its biggest compliment."
What kind of image does the West expect to see of us, or even desire to see in a work of art, such as film?
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"It is the same as when we have an image of something that we expect. With Iranian film, we imagine a poor village, and even if that’s not what we see, in a manner of speaking this abuses our patience and our view of this film industry. For instance, we do not quite expect an urban youth story from Kazakhstan… Speaking about this region – and here I mean the territories of the former Yugoslavia – films that portrayed politically topical events have been successful at the Berlin Festival over the past 10- 15 years. That is what is expected of us. There was Ljubiša Samardžić’s film Sky Hook (Nebeska Udica) that deals with the bombing, the Croatian film Witnesses (Svjedoci) by Vinko Brešan, the film Grbavica that took first prize at the festival... These are all films that deal with political topics, but there is none of that in my film." |
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There is none of that literally and directly, but fundamentally there is quite a lot?
"Yes, there is – in the background. But the film does not deal with politics directly, and I am very happy that there was no talk of politics after its screening at the Berlin festival and at other festivals – only about the film. A German reporter even commented at a news conference at the Berlin Festival that for the first time in 15 years a film from Serbia and from the former Yugoslavia was not discussed in light of a political topic, but in terms of aesthetics, acting, direction and the screenplay. This I saw as a big compliment."
I also presume that it is a big compliment for you to have generated so much interest in the United States, especially for the remake of your film?
"At this point, as many as three American companies are interested in purchasing the rights for a remake of The Trap, and as we are not wellversed in these matters (the "we" stands for Srdan Golubović’s Baš Čelik Productions), we have engaged an agency from Los Angeles to negotiate for us. The same agency will represent me here as well as in the United States. One of these three offers is very interesting because it involves a producer who exclusively works on remakes of originals. As far as I’m concerned, I find this whole story interesting, only insofar as a remake would shed new light on the original and lend it greater publicity than it now enjoys in the United States.
"As a film director, a remake of The Trap is of no interest to me and it does not imply they would ask me to direct it. And even if they did, I would decline to do so because I’ve already done that story and I see no reason to do it again."
The Trap is a film that very clearly shows your stand on the events in Serbia in recent years. How would you defi ne your political credo?
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"If you live in Serbia, and are into art, it is impossible not to have a political stand. Perhaps this is possible in Norway or Switzerland, but in Serbia it is simply impossible. My first film, Absolute Hundred (Apsolutnih Sto) was itself such a stand. It was a cry of fury about the times in which we lived. It was youthful energy that opposed the system. I think The Trap was a more mature emotion, a disappointment. It reflects my own personal disappointment because more than six years after October 5, 2000, we don’t live any better in this country, not because we’re not wealthier, but because we haven’t become better people. This is the biggest tragedy that has befallen our society, because we haven’t admitted that we’ve done some bad things. The road to confession is the road to catharsis, and the road through catharsis is the road forward. |
Reform of society entails not only reforming the social and economic system; it is primarily an overhaul of moral and fundamental social values. If this does not occur, a society cannot move on. The Trap entails my great disappointment that this hasn’t occurred in Serbia, and in this context my film is my political credo. Or to be more precise, my credo as a human being. I am not sure whether this is apparent when viewed from abroad.
The Hollywood Reporter carried a list of the ten best films at this year’s Berlin Festival, which included your film. This has created an image of you in America, and there is now high interest in you as a director...
"I entertain no great expectations about this because my basic ambition is to live in Belgrade and make films in Serbia. My dream has always been here and not in America. Scripts have arrived from a renowned producer, perhaps the biggest in the United States. The agency I have engaged is also sending them to me. I read these scripts that are very professionally written, but most of them hardly resonate with me. I think it is the tactic of these producers to send me diverse scripts to see which one will provoke a reaction. I sincerely tell them what I think of these scripts so they’ll have a clear idea about my interests. My readings of these scripts and my comments are a way to get to know me and the kind of sensibility I fi nd alluring. This is why they send me so many texts, because that’s the only way to understand one another in light of what I prefer.
"Anyhow, I don’t know much about that world, but I do know that directors in that industry are not stars, and I wouldn’t go to America as a world class director but as someone who has not won a Golden Palm or as an award-winning director in Cannes or Venice… They find me interesting because in the films The Trap and Absolute Hundred they have discerned the spirit of an auteur and, as they’ve said, someone with superb film-making skills. This is basically what interests them. I have no illusions that my status means anything to them. This type of recognition is pleasing and a man cannot remain indifferent to it. So, regardless of what I’ve said earlier – that I want to live in Belgrade and make films in Serbia – there is always that famous sentence from John Lennon: "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans".
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Srdan Golubović & Nebojša Glogovac |
Do you ever think what your father Predrag Golubović, would say about your films if he were alive today?
"I have thought about this. I think he would have been very proud, because after all, my film evinces a maturity as a man and artist, and this I think is something he would have been very proud of. Since my father died – I was 22 at the time – I have shunned the influence he had on me, which is quite natural, as I was striving to develop a sensibility and style of my own. Now, as I enter a more mature age, I feel like I’m somehow returning to the influence I received from him. This is a normal process – returning to an influence from which you once fled. My next film, which I’m currently preparing, returns even closer to the influence my father had on me. I learned the most from him.
Does this mean you’ll be doing the new film according to your own screenplay?
"At this point I’m merely putting the story structure in place, that is, the synopsis, which is based on a true story.
From a more recent or distant past?
"From a relatively recent past."
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