Croatian director Branko Schmidt is one of the guests of this year’s FEST. His film “Metastasis”, realized in cooperation with scriptwriter Ognjen Svilicic, is a condensed, dark story about a part of the Croatian society.
What is the metastasis in your film?
- „Metastasis“ were first created as a novel published in Zagreb three years ago. The novel was a huge success and it served as a basis for the same-named theatre play. As much as five directors were interested in this text and owing to my director, I had the honor to make a film out of it. My producer was generous and he gave the best offer (laughs) and we got the rights to make a film out of the novel. In the medical sense, we know what metastatis is – expansion of cancer cells leading to the death of the body. Both the novel and the theatre play and this film are about this metastasis that have engulfed the Croatian society and threaten to bring about a bad outcome. The story is about something society is reluctant to show and what is most often pushed under the rug. Therefore, it was quite a shocker in Croatia. The film was a big success with about 30 thousand viewers, which is a great number for our country. It has won the Pula film festival and there were a lot of reactions. Interestingly enough, not a single politician attended the premiere. Politicians like to appear at premieres, they didn’t attend mine. This too speaks about the film. It shows that it is rejected by the political top brass of the state, but it has been welcomed by people, especially young people. To date we have participated in a dozen festivals. I hope the film will be well received in Belgrade. We are negotiating with the „Balkan“ cinema for we want to show it on its repertoire.
How did you choose the actors?
- I am a director who is known to have made several wrong, even catastrophic choices in my life. My films can be a model of how not to distribute roles. I have learned from my mistakes and I am now more attentive in choosing actors than working on the script. I was particularly the case in this film. The casting lasted for almost two months. We tried out almost all possible combinations until we found the best actors. Our preparations lasted for almost two months, because the shots in the film are several minutes long and we couldn’t afford any mistakes or to cut anything in the editing room. The casting was spot on and the adaptation of the novel by Ognjen Svilicic too; I think that he is currently the best script writer in
What were the reactions of the Croatian audience?
The reactions have been mainly positive. People were shocked, especially with the fact that I made the film, because nobody expected me to. In a sense, the public believes I am a “government director” who wouldn’t make a film tackling too much with the political establishment. Secondly, they think I am too old for such a topic. I think that a young person would “burn up” doing this film with all this material. I was completely clear about how I must convey this kind of text on film.