Murina, a film by director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, won the Camera d’Or two months ago, an award given to the best debut feature film from all festival programs at Cannes. After Cannes Film Festival, Pula Film Festival, Sarajevo Film Festival and a tour of the summer stages all over Croatia, Murina comes to Karlovac, to the banks of the Korana river, where the audience got the chance to watch the film about Julija, a young girl battling her patriarchal father, but her surroundings as well. Just like murina (the fish), the protagonist is ready to determine her own destiny and do everything to set herself free. We talked to the film’s director about the topic of the film, the young actress Gracija Filipović and many other things!

The last two months have been very intense for you, both in the personal and professional sphere, so, for a start, how are you?

I’m working, preparing new projects, creating a new life plan and preparing for a trip to America.

The main star of Murina is Gracija Filipović, whom you have worked with before. How did your relationship develop through the years?

I met Gracija as a little girl, she was nine when she acted in one scene of my short film and when she was twelve we worked together again on a music video for the band Silente. I behaved very motherly toward her at first because she was a child. Then we made Into the Blue; I could invest more time in Gracija as an actress on that project, because the music video was more of a game to us. Even though she was still a child at thirteen, I tried to bring her character’s inner world closer to her, so she could fit into Julija’s skin easier. We started preparing for Murina when she was fifteen and our relationship changed during the preparations and the shoot itself. Gracija became a young woman and even though we continued to work just as seriously, we communicated on a more friendly level. My directorial authority changed from treating her as a child to treating her as an actress. While we were preparing for Murina we became close friends and we’re much closer now that Gracija’s a young woman than when she was a child.

The character of Julija was written especially for Gracija. How did you choose the rest of the actors, Danica Čurčić, Leon Lučev and Cliff Curtis?

I chose them according to Gracija. We did tests with many actors, first with Gracija for a couple of days, then with the other actors, to see how they would “breathe” together. We made a few changes, but I think we made the right choices for the family in Murina in the end.

Julija and her father have the most turbulent relationship in the film. Did Leon Lučev and Gracija Filipović prepare for that specifically?

Yes, we met three or four times a year in Dubrovnik, where we would live together in an apartment for a couple of days, go sailing, go to the islands, walk around Dubrovnik… We spent a lot of time together, both privately and professionally.

You depicted the topic of a father-daughter relationship very skillfully, without using cliches. What was the most important thing for you to show?

It was interesting to investigate how much of ourselves we get from our families, and how much we are taught. Our relationships and reactions undoubtedly come from our families, but how many come from our inner nature? It was important that Murina showed Julija in contrast and comparison with her father.

We had the chance to see wonderful landscapes in the film, the locations are extraordinary, and the sea acts as an additional character in the story. What sort of role does nature play in the film?

It wasn’t important to me to show the beauty of the landscapes, but I wanted to use nature to add tension to the dynamic between the characters. I purposefully filmed on islands without any greenery, on the dry land and under the sea, where we have only the colour blue and rocks.

The short film Into the Blue, where Gracija also plays the main role, has many scenes underwater, just like Murina. What did you learn while filming the short film that helped you during preparations and the filming of Murina?

I was definitely better prepared for Murina. During the shoot of Into the Blue we didn’t have the chance to film all the underwater scenes I wanted. I think that back then that was a technical, organizational and logistical experiment, and I even had to do reshoots to film a few extra underwater scenes. I made Murina with a well formed team, we were very prepared, and we knew that communication is the most important thing underwater, so when we took care of that problem, everything went smoothly.

What was the atmosphere like during the shoot?

There were many intense emotions during the shoot, there was a lot of singing, unexpected situations, dynamics and stress, but all of that made Murina look more real and lifelike. I enjoyed those two months of shooting.

Last year, when the world was taken over by the pandemic, FRFF received many films on that topic. This year there are fewer of them, but the topic of coronavirus is still present. Did you ever feel the urge to make a film about it? How did you spend your time in lockdown?

I’m not interested in that at all, it was enough to live through the pandemic and the lockdown, so venturing into a film world dealing with that topic sounds completely uninteresting to me. In films I like to visit places I haven’t been before or places I would like to go, but I understand that some people are inspired only by what is happening to them in the present moment. However, it’s difficult to make films about something that is currently happening, most topics are dealt with in retrospect, by analysing feelings after some time has passed. Regarding creativity during lockdown, I was lucky to find my nest where I could write, create and work on new projects, so I used that time very creatively.

What advice would you give to our young filmmakers?

They have to be honest in what they’re doing, the most important part of the work is choosing a topic for a film, one that really inspires them, because making films is a long and hard process, you have to make many personal and professional sacrifices, so you should choose a topic you’ll be ready to sacrifice for in that way. There is no recipe for success, everyone does things their own way, but I don’t think you should jump into just any project, but carefully choose what, why and how you want to show something on film.

You’re preparing a new project with Ivor Martinić. What is it about?

We’re developing a project called Stane, a film dealing with a woman that’s a part of the Croatian diaspora in New York who, when she finds out her husband’s unfaithful, acts the same way, but is judged by people around her and she starts fighting the mentality she’s part of, which she wasn’t aware of until then.

LEMONY QUESTION: How do you make lemonade and where do you like to drink it the most?

I go to my garden, pick some lemons, give them a good wash and freeze them whole. Later I take the frozen lemons along with the peel, put them in the blender and mix with water. There are a lot of vitamins in the peel, the lemons have to be organic, and I like drinking my lemonade the most in Dubrovnik.

(M.L.J)