Sunday | 21. July. 2013

When vegetables fly

Conversation with: Areta Curković, actress in the film Handymen

After your screen debut in the film The Lika Cinema, your new collaboration with Dalibor Matanić brings another good-hearted and plumpish woman hungry for love.

It was beautiful to shoot The Lika Cinema, but it was strenuous at the same time and I couldn’t relax because it was my first film. Apart from that, there was that famous scene in the pigsty that we were going to shoot at the very end waiting for us. It was beautiful to shoot Handymen and not strenuous at all, although it was very intense and serious in terms of work. But generally, the atmosphere was light and collaborative. Olga was not very successful in finding love in The Lika Cinema, whereas Keka in Handymen succeeded in realizing her plan to shatter her husband Baja’s routine and awaken his love for her.

Was it fun to play slapstick?

There was laughter and fear. When we shot the scene in which I throw vegetables at Goran Bogdan, who plays the role of Ilija, everyone kept saying: “Don’t hit him in the eye!” Of course I did hit him in the eye, with a carrot. I was scared stiff, tears went down my face, and he was wonderful. He was saying: “It’s OK, don’t worry!” He held his hand on the eye – it hurt him like hell – but everything was OK in the end so we continued shooting. At times I would start laughing and I couldn’t stop myself.

The scene in which you dance tango with Bojan Navojec, or the Dalmatian flirter Lujo, is very funny too.

People practice tango all their lives, and we practiced some ten days with choreographer Irma Omerzo. And we learned what we learned, and it seems that the measure was ideal to make the scene sufficiently funny. We did not try to dance funny, we actually did our best.

 By Janko Heidl