Finding our own ways

 

Well, it seems to me that especially for a certain cinema which has its own language, which somehow challenges new forms but also new ways of financing, one needs to take a lot of risks, to be ready to adapt to quick changes this industry is experiencing. Women, especially those from small societies, like the one I come from, are used to a type of education that requires much more resistance, but it also teaches us to accept and deal with failure. So, this makes us adaptable. Also, we didn’t have easily provided choices when it comes to exploring or studying cinema, we had to be intuitive and find our own ways. This is now resulting in our films, in their diversity, I think. 

 

 

That’s how war dictates our lives now. War it’s still present, it is related to how we define time, especially the future. Our parents, older generations, are living in the “post-war times” trying to compensate for the lost times, dealing with their own sinkholes. So, usually, there is little space for the youth to design their future independently of this. A tricky mentality for a youth temperament. I tried to explore the everyday workings of these forces and see the clash of perceptions that this creates, the complexity that generates in a family plan.

 

 

There are few others, if I could name as, joy moments, but I think one remembers this dance - moment because it’s just “the loudest joy moment”, it comes more loud and dynamic compared with the rest of the flow in the film, and I decided to add it like that, I liked it there. I thought it would feel unexpected, maybe uninvited at the beginning. But it modifies, and the way it does, I think it shows a lot more from these characters than any words could do. Actually, my aim was to capture situations which intertwine different emotions at once, for me there is never only joy, or fear, or so… I like to look at these moments, which emphasizes this clash of different emotions happening at once, because it is close to how we experience life. 

 

 

Well, Dorina is after the change. She is a character led by desire… negotiating her desire, was what gave the flow to the narrative. It just helped me clear the dilemmas of having to fit her into the expectations that a film-plot creates. Her character, but as well as Venera’s, both of them, their age, allowed me to challenge the narrative. I find that age to be very curious, always checking, wanting to fit, failing to fit, exploring… so the unexpected turn is part of Dorina’s journey. I don’t feel betrayed by her. Of course, yes, external things force a lot of their decisions but the difference between the actions they two take, it’s what kept me wanting to tell this story. 

 

 

The most important thing for me was to not have an ending, which feels like a clear choice. It’s a bit cliché for me to experience those characters who change, who become “someone else '' by the end of the film. Actually, the aim of this film was to play a bit with this aspect, to challenge this idea of character. I wanted to provide situations, which help characters reveal who they are. Instead of them changing I wanted to change the relationship between them and the viewer. I wanted the viewer to get to know or understand them better along the way. As for Venera’s character, I find she matures within the film and for me maturity doesn't necessarily mean changing things, it often means finding a new fit to things you have and that surrounds you. Finding a new way to look at things.