Sunday | 21. July. 2013

Two strong egos

Director Luka Tokić on the film Badgers

A student of Pedagogy and Philosophy, Luka Tokić has shown interest in the Seventh Art since his childhood. Up until now his directing credits include several amateur works, as well as one high school documentary about his classmates, which sparked a flame in him strong enough to make him embark on a more professional cinematic journey. When he failed to enrol at the Academy of Dramatic Art, he decided to continue his film training with Blank. He tried his hand at screenwriting and one of his screenplays, entitled Badgers, has been made into a film.

This film being his debut, he had the jitters during the shooting of some more challenging scenes, but his hand of salvation on the set was his producer Dario Juričan who made his work easier offering his advice. Although, due to the given circumstances, the shooting lasted only from daybreak to sunset, it was strenuous for the director. The key to the film’s success is good preparation as well as constant work and practice with actors, who – considering their creativity and willingness to work, which was conducive to a flood of good ideas, especially for dialogues as the key thematic pillar of a story about a young couple –“ left a huge mark” on the overall film. The working process was interactive. Although the most important dialogues from the screenplay were kept, they were fully open to further nuancing, which gave the film a stronger dramaturgical note.

Originally thought up as a comedy, in the course of the working process, and thanks to the engagement of actors, the film transformed into a drama, which made the director feel more confident about the direction to take and the manner in which to proceed to the end. The somewhat more delicate and challenging theme of a couple seducing each other and their relationship in general was picked up on the basis of an experience of a friend. The director wanted to explore why their love, because of the clash of two strong egos that simply couldn’t coexist, could not eventually succeed.

By Iva Cikojević