For Good Old Times, a film by the father and son Galić duo, was presented at today’s press conference. Director Eduard Galić said he managed great with young, creative actors who have done a good job. “The film tells a story from early 2000, the year I wrote 90 percent of the screenplay that was later elaborated,” said screenwriter Dominik Galić, adding that the story has some autobiographical elements, but that he drew the ideas from his surroundings. Elizabeta Brodić is cast in one of the leading female roles, and her character is not a part of the familiar group. “I am the salvation for the main character, the only way out for him,” she said. Vini Jurčić is cast in the second female lead role, and she got the role at the audition. Karlo Mrkša plays the leading male role, and said that it was challenging at first to play a character with a different temper to his. “He’s someone interested only in hedonism and who finds salvation in studying acting,” he said. His fellow actor Denis Bosak said the character he plays is in a happy mood, what from the opiates he abuses, what from not caring what goes around him. Matija Prskalo admitted she was not yearning for a role like this one, but in view of the Croatian reality, she had to settle for it. Ankica Dobrić plays a peculiar lady with a dog, and she found greta joy in working on this film.
The Frog is a Croatian minority co-production film, based on the play by Dubravko Mihanović of the same name. Director Elmir Jukić said he looked for film potential in that fantastic and exciting drama. “In 2005, when the play opened, our journey began. I had no doubt about the lead actors, I cast actors who are in the play, because the roles simply belong to them,” Jukić said. One of these actors is Emir Hadžihafizbegović, who said that the play The Frog will be staged for the 205th time this December. “I have worked with Jukić many times, including the cult series Crazy, Confused, Normal, and so I was very happy with us working together again. Atmosphere is what’s extremely important when filming, and we had a wonderful aura on set,” he said. He added he and his fellow actors Aleksandar Seksan, Mirsad Tuka and Moamer Kasumović know the play inside out, but they had to adjust their acting for the film. “You have to turn down the volume on expression when acting in a film. It’s not very easy, but we know the lines so well that it wasn’t a problem for us, really,” he said. He said the film was another story with a message from Sarajevo, where in choosing between bomb and ball, one chooses ball. “Whatever happened, happened. We have to move on,” he sad and concluded by saying that the film makes people better. Filming in Sarajevo in winter took 19 days. Boris T. Matić is the coproducer, and said that Antonio Nuić was supposed to be making this film 10 years ago, but they gave it to their colleagues with the condition of being a part of the crew.