Sunday | 21. July. 2013

Film as an all-inclusive package

Director Ana Cvitaš on the film We Met

Although originally the film was supposed to be her thesis work at the Academy of Dramatic Art Production Department, by chance or due to the given circumstances, she ended up acting as its screenwriter and director. At first, the search for the potential director took forever and then the selected director told the newly-fledged producer she could actually do everything on her own. However, battles were fought over the topic too. Her thesis advisors did not give the green light to her wish to make a more experimental film. Finally, a compromise was made – to make an atmospheric, non-narrative film without the classic thematic ring of the protagonist’s journey from point A to point B, but rather a film based on the condition, the feelings of, in this case, a female protagonist, who brings a child into the world – a film in which different cinematic techniques are used to break into her stream of thoughts in a voyeuristic manner and to demonstrate the tight connection between the mother and the child. The film crew anchored itself for five days in Petrinja near the river, where the director welcomed everyone to her weekend house. The shootings were scheduled for dawn and dusk because the intention was to catch natural light.

As the director has neither experiences of being a mother nor maternal instincts (laughter), she performed a thorough research of pregnancy blogs on the internet before the shooting, finding inspiration in the diary and the photographs of a young photographer who lives a nomadic life with her partner and realizes her maternity in the nature, which triggered the director’s decision to have the social drama mutate into a state of mind psychological film, according to the definition of the director.

Furthermore, her producer’s nerve did not allow her to stand still so she dedicated herself to postproduction because her goal was to make a film package with all parts of equal quality, that is, with original music, attractive visuals, perfect sound, solid acting, in one word, she wanted the film to have – everything, what she generally considers to be the weak point of Croatian films. Although she suspects someone could label the film a video or a commercial, the director vouches for her director’s and producer’s signature.

By Iva Cikojević