email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

SARAJEVO 2021 CineLink Industry Days

Marko Grba Singh e Dragana Jovovic • Regista e produttrice di Forget the Ocean, Why Not Try Surfing These Insane River Waves

“La storia è profondamente legata alle mie radici”

di 

- Abbiamo parlato con i vincitori dell'Eurimages Co-production Development Award ai CineLink Industry Days di Sarajevo per parlare del loro nuovo progetto

Marko Grba Singh e Dragana Jovovic • Regista e produttrice di Forget the Ocean, Why Not Try Surfing These Insane River Waves
(© Ognjen Glavonić)

Questo articolo è disponibile in inglese.

We chatted with director Marko Grba Singh and producer Dragana Jovovic to talk through their new project, Forget the Ocean, Why Not Try Surfing These Insane River Waves, the recipient of the Eurimages Co-production Development Award at this year’s CineLink Industry Days (the industry section of the Sarajevo Film Festival – see the news). The prize is worth €20,000.

(L'articolo continua qui sotto - Inf. pubblicitaria)

Cineuropa: What is Forget the Ocean, Why Not Try Surfing These Insane River Waves about? When did you start working on it?
Marko Grba Singh:
The story is about my grandfather, Mahinder. It is a reconstruction of his life and his short-lived marriage with my grandmother, Gordana. They met in London during the 1950s. She was from Yugoslavia, and he was from Punjab. Soon after, they split. She came back to Yugoslavia with my father. Mahinder died very young in the UK; I’ve never met him. The film is divided into two parts: fiction and documentary. In the documentary part, I visit Mahinder’s family and gather information about his life. The fiction part is a contemporary reconstruction of their love story, but it’s set today. They are in their thirties, so the plot from the 1950s is adapted to today’s society. There are many reasons behind that, but the main ones would be to show that some xenophobic issues they had back then are still very much alive today. The other important aspect is to make their story immortal, to give it a different ending other than a tragic one (with him dying young and alone), for them to be happy and stay together, at least on the screen.

How are you planning to use the Eurimages Award?
Dragana Jovovic:
The timing of this award is impeccable, as it comes at a key moment for the development of our film. We plan to develop a script and do research, but the award will surely contribute to the further financing of the project as well.

How would you sum up your participation in this year’s CineLink Industry Days?
MGS:
It was my first involvement in this kind of event, and I’m very grateful for having been a part of it. I had really important conversations regarding the development of the script, and obviously, the award helped a lot. I think it will grant us the extra energy we need to prepare this film.

DJ: This year’s edition of CineLink was hybrid, and I think the organisers did a great job juggling the live and virtual aspects. The exchanges with our script consultant, Françoise Van Roy, were invaluable, as were the meetings with CineLink’s team and some European producers with whom we talked about the production aspects of the project. All of this helped us understand what stage we are at, and to get a better sense of all the potential it has. Last but not least, at the market we met some very interesting people, with whom we kept on discussing the project. And in the end, we got this great award given out by professionals whose work we really appreciate.

What kinds of challenges is the current health crisis posing for the project?
M
GS: The biggest challenge for me is the unpredictability of the future. That can be tricky when creating the film, because I don’t want the movie to be outdated or “out of this time”. The fiction part happens in the present, but the present changes so much from day to day. Radu Jude did a great thing in Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Radu Jude
scheda film
]
, just submerging the narrative in the pandemic in a very smart way. I’m not certain about how the pandemic will develop, but anything could affect our storytelling.

DJ: I believe that the pandemic has put us all in a situation where we ask ourselves what the future of film is, on both an abstract and a practical level – how we finance, shoot or show our films, and in which ways they contribute to society. In this respect, I think that this is just the beginning and that we are yet to face greater challenges in our line of business.

Do you have any idea about when the project might be ready for release? Are you applying for further funding opportunities?
DJ: Next spring, we will be applying for production support from Film Center Serbia. Once we secure some Serbian funding, the next steps will be to apply for funding in our co-production countries. At the moment, we have a French co-producer attached – Jasmina Sijerčić with her company Bocalupo Films. In the meantime, we will continue talks with the co-producers we met at CineLink, as we hope to close the financing during 2022, to begin filming in 2023 and to premiere in 2024.

Why is it important for you to tell this story today?
MGS:
It’s a very personal story but also universal. It’s about love without borders, and how life connects people from different continents. We are witnessing a strong rise in populism today. I feel that this film should question that as well. Obviously, the story is deeply connected to my roots, but it’s also a therapeutic tool for me.

(L'articolo continua qui sotto - Inf. pubblicitaria)

Ti è piaciuto questo articolo? Iscriviti alla nostra newsletter per ricevere altri articoli direttamente nella tua casella di posta.

Privacy Policy