GRBAVICA

Interview

01. Grbavica is a word which foreigners will probably break their tongues on. What is Grbavica ?
02. What is the origin of the story?
03. You directed the film and wrote the screenplay... What was important to you in developing the characters?
04. To the international audience, Mirjana Karanovic is probably best known for her roles in films directed by Emir Kusturica.
But maybe for a long time she did not have a role that would give her the opportunity to express her full acting ability and her personal charisma.
05. To all actors, even those with “most secondary” roles, you gave the opportunity to make their little life-works.
06. What is it like working with children on a shoot?
07. Is it true that Luna broke her leg during shooting? hat?
08. Music and songs play very important roles in your film. A couple of different songs appear in very significant moments in the film:
the film starts with an Ilahija, and ends with a hit from the 70´s. In between, there are levels of turbo folk hits....
09. Although the story about Esma and Sara is essentially sad, it is also very optimistic.
Is it possible there is a hidden possibility for forgiveness toward Sara's father?
10. What are the conditions in BiH for filmmaking?

Grbavica is first of all an actor’s film. I was aware of the fact that I could only make this film alive if I had great actors, especially the mother and daughter characters. That is why we took a lot of time working on the casting. For example, we went from school to school and interviewed over 2000 children. Then we made a close selection of 200 children who I spoke to personally, and then we selected 20 children who we worked with for seven days – to see which child had acting talent, but also the ability to progress, to concentrate and to listen to indications.

As for the other actors, after a very long and careful selection, we had many rehearsals, some of which took place on real locations, so that actors would be able to get used to the world we were supposed to create. What made me very happy, beside the fact that the actors were perfect professionals, was that they loved their characters, the screenplay and the crew . Everyone wanted to give everything from themselves. To me personally, they were very supportive.