Sunday | 21. July. 2013

On the film with an open heart

Conversation with: Nikša Butijer, actor in the film Handymen

What is the origin of the unusual prop-phrase Đavo popija! (May the Devil Drink it!) that the character you are playing often uses in the film?

I heard it somewhere, in my childhood, and I used it now.

Baja is another reticent, down-to-earth, simple man you are interpreting.

I made my first screen appearance when I was nearly thirty. I played a small role in The Lika Cinema. In the course of five or six years a certain number of screen appearances actually did accumulate. I keep gaining experience and I always try to work from the beginning. But you cannot run away from yourself. One tries to build into oneself the projection of life that the director wants to have and that is wanted during the filmmaking process. I still enjoy this and I’ll try to endure while it lasts.

The shooting phase was relatively short, only twenty days. Does such a tight framework make it harder for actors or does it help them?

The film was not made in a couple of weeks. You create things like that in your head and what is written at the end is the result of longer considerations. Dado Matanić came up with an idea for such a film one and a half or two years ago. He mentioned it to me and he mentioned his casting choices. So it did not come as a surprise when he told me that we were actually going to shoot it. It’s true, the period between preparations and the realization was very brief, but that is not necessarily negative. It can be an advantage. No time to think – we agree on things, we do our job and complete everything in ten or fifteen days, which can be very stimulating. Although nowadays in Croatia it is not easy to withstand the twelve-hour working day on the film, especially if you’re playing a bigger role. After six or seven hours it is becoming hard to concentrate. However, we met, we had a creative idea and we got down to work with open hearts.

By Janko Heidl