WORKS

I made my first film the moment I laid my hands on a digital photo camera: the long anticipated moment since my childhood, during which I was able to pass the imagined sequences only in form of fast, dynamic sketches and comics, that I drew passionately. My love for movement, narrative and drama never truly found satisfaction during the years I spent painting still models, still life, still landscapes... and was yearning for something different. It was financial situation that was dictating the course of life and forced me to make long detoures before I landed on the ground that felt familiar like no other before it: film was in my bones, a perfect form for an inner stream I somehow wanted to record...

 Since then I made number of short films, enjoyed experimenting with different form, genres and techniques and developing specific film language that would suit the ideas I wanted to express.

ANA

(2018)

She often laughed. Adored animals. Dreamt that she has seen God…

As beatings and crying became too loud, she went away.

The darkness was passing by without a word,

when the clock struck forty

and she felt it is time…

Ana (75 min) is my first feature, that grew on the soil prepared by "Maladies No.5" and a script for another feature film, "The Fortress", that never made it to the production. Losely ispired by true events, it had a perfect setting to accumulate all the thoughts and ideas developed in my previous works.

Despite the structure of a classical fiction film, "Ana" still remains an experimental piece, especially because of the treatment of the characters, their dialogue and communication, and the way the whole reality in film has been established. The classical form was intentionally used in order to suggest "normality"; the carefully planned introduction of the different characters, outer and inner space, unconventional dialogues, minimalistic atmos and music that is almost always physically connected to a surrounding - all these elements were used in a way to build up the questionable picture of the world, seen through the prism of the main protagonist, Everything what we see and hear is her interpretation - the border between the possible "objective reality" and the projection of her inner world remains vague; sparse information seem to be more an obstacle then useful material that would normaly help the viewer in creating some solid ground to start from. The film follows a slow developement of main protagonists self-awareness, triggered through traumatic events: her deepely supressed, conflicted emotions, unstability and inner split become slowly unveiled, as the story constantly takes new turns and reality shifts to an unpredictable degree.

Questions of freedom, devotion, subjugation, loss and self-awareness are just some of the subjects this piece tries to deal with, while its core issue of active consciousness and understanding of "reality", remains woven into its very fabric, more to be felt through its structure and by thus mirrored to our own experience.

Shot only in eleven days, with heroic performance of its actors and the crew, "Ana" represented a real technical and productional challenge that brought me to the new and unseen shores, made me push the boundaries of my own limitations and gave me the priceless experience to further continue my journey on the field of filmmaking.

With: Ivana Tomić, Jelena Puzić, Nebojša Rako, Saša Simović, Veljko Nikolić, Draga Ćirić

Script, directing, editing: Andrija Jovanović

Camera: David Huss

Light: Diana Sanchez

Production sound: Mario Schöning

Concept art: Marija Radenković

Music, sound design: Smiljana Nikolić

Sound mixing: Rudolf Pototschnig

MALADIES NO.5

(2015)

He bit the last drop of blood out of me

and ran wildly into the street

howling like a wolf.

I dragged myself across the floor

like a sack.

How appropriate...

From the moment it was written, the text was meant to be a part of a film. An inner monologue, shaped like a poem, seems to contradict its very content, the cultural and social milieu in which the main protagonist lives and the described circumstances under which she suffers. The tone itself goes a step further, giving this strange mixture an edge in creating the atmosphere of masochistic pleasure and willing blindness. Spoken by a young woman’s voice, intimate and close by as if we share her cocoon, it delivers a feeling of one great loneliness and disturbing resignation.

Despite the original intention, from the moment it was created, the text stood on its own, as an independent form that doesn’t require visualisation. Finding a suitable visual counterpart, was a real challenge. The basic idea from which I started was to have an inner and outer space, intimate interior with traces of love, care, violence and suffering, and the outer world, abstracted through the main protagonists prism. The absence of the narrator herself, who was to be presented through her voice and the space, should create a bigger distance to a viewer and actually make him more engaged in her drama. At this point the visual part passed through many stages, the basic concept was challenged countless times in order to see if it brings enough. Then at some point a question arose, what if we actually have a chance to see this person, how would it affect our perspective, our judgement, would it bring more than it is presented to us through the sound. Her condition and her attitude towards it is not a state one would easily identify with, so the introduction of the person herself offered new shifting of perspectives and a question of awareness. The previous idea of a built-up interior, that should represent her, was abandoned in favor of more realistic surrounding in which her was given a chance to lure us even more into the world of her “malady”. By witnessing her strange and contradictory behavior, at the same time listening to what would be her intimate confession, we are lured to a traitorous path of taking up critical attitudes and making judgement. The further development brings new twists and changing of the course.

The film was shot at Hamburger DOM, Studio Finkenau and trailer park in Lüneburg. The main character is presented by two actresses (voice over and appearance). Bringing all of these different elements together gave it a proper mark that was previously conceived in a written text.

Maladies No.5 was screened at "Imag(in)ing identity" exhibition in Hamburg gallery "Frappant" in 2015, at HAW Flimmerfest, 38th Edition of Poitiers Film Festival in France, Bogota Experimental Film Festival in Colombia and was proposed by the SSP film professors for Cannes Dvd.

With: Carly Borgstrom, Almuth Anders

Script, directing, editing: Andrija Jovanović

Camera, light, sound recording, animation: David Huss

Scenery, costumes: Klara Stoyanova

Music, sound design: Smiljana Nikolić

WARTEN AUF SICH SELBST

(2013)

Inspired by Kafka’s parable “Before the law”, also a byproduct of my long dealing with his mesmerizing novel “The castle”, this short film, in its ironic, provoking  manner, deals particularly with perspectives, a way of perception and understanding of the world that surrounds us, that determine the most of our behavior and, through it, our way of living. Our ability and readiness to question them, the amount of energy we invest in our belief , our everlasting need for some solid ground in form of rules, social and cultural structures, a need for a divine presence, all of this is questioned and put to the test.

Intentional use of strong light, reduction of the background to an abstract space, absence of speech and use of sound designed from a single string instrument, were all meant to create theater-like imagery and atmosphere that will underline the stubborn, desperate and questionable   

persistence of the main protagonist to confirm his existence in the eyes of “higher instances”, that in the end prove to be made by a man himself.

With: Jonatan Petré Brixel and Nikolas Kuhl

Script, directing, camera, editing: Andrija Jovanović

Assistant director: Karla Bauer

Sound design: Smiljana Nikolić

BRAINSTOP

(2012)

THINK! THINK! THINK!

THINK! THINK! THINK!

THINK! THINK! THINK!

THINK! THINK! THINK!

This is another short I did in a form of animation, although this time I used the real time footage, instead of stills. In the end the way it was done in the post production brought it pretty close to a stop-motion thing, the adjusting of movement, synchronizing and achieving continuity required a lot of work in editing programs.

The basic idea was the similar to the one from the Big Bad Bag, of using a single element to create a whole story, extracting all its potential, only this time the intention went further, to merge its content with the ideas on which later “Warten auf sich selbst”, “Maladies-No.5” and the latest project “AnA” will grow. Capacity of a reason to fast become aware of its own existence, and ensuing tide of questions, doubts, obsessions that eventually lead to its own undoing is the subject of this experimental short. The camera concentrates on the fascinating mechanism of the typewriter, creating an image of a living organism, its strings and levers as muscles and bones, its buttons as teeth. The creature that lives and breathes is in the end capable of rational thinking and soon afterwards the image of a “flesh” is suppressed by the abstract thoughts that in the end lead to a breakdown. An existential crisis of a machine, a tragicomical image of a man himself.

Script, camera, light: Andrija Jovanović & Andrija Petrović

Directing, editing: Andrija Jovanović

ENEMY FROM WITHIN

(2011)

An experimental short, focused on grasping specific emotional state, with changing rhythm and combination of experimental imagery. It was intended as a second part of a longer film, which was dealing with the subject of identity, existential crisis and shifting perspectives.  A “Second chapter” represents a stage of inner crisis that tends to expand itself far into extreme. Without any spoken word, the story is told through the images, scenes that change very fast, with flashing light, dark and pale surfaces, symbolic objects, and the face and its parts as the mirror of the soul. All these elements were brought together to create claustrophobic, ominous and dark atmosphere that reflects feeling of isolation, lack of opportunities, desperation and repulsion. It is a dark introspection of a person wrestling herself, trying out different ways to escape before she faces the fact that she cannot outrun her own limitations.

As one of the first films I made, and as the first experimental, it was a great challenge for editing, dealing with effects and building up the accelerating arch of action through sound, rhythm of changing motifs and movement.

With: Smiljana Nikolić

Script, camera, directing, eiditng: Andrija Jovanović

Music & sound design: Smiljana Nikolić

THE LAST CHAPTER

(2010)

There is some kind of a stone wall, I like to sit on...

Inspired by a poem of Smiljana Nikolić, this short was intended to be the last part of a longer film and the conclusion of its subject. Bringing polarities together, acceptance of inevitable and understanding the power of shifting perspectives are the themes evoked in this end piece. The final chapter is reconciliation with oneself, compare to the second chapter it has a different tone, with slow, meditating rhythm and tranquil images. The text and the visual story are based on three elements and their interweaving: the Man, the Wall and the Sea; the constant yearning for the eternal, the chains of human existence and eternity which carries with it freedom and death.

Swimming in the sea, unity with the element that represents the fulfillment of one’s greatest longing, is made impossible and remains but a dream replaced by “a beautiful view” from the top of  the Wall. It the end the ‘choice’, the shifting perspective, becomes the fourth element that completes the circle and brings reconciliation with oneself.

With: Smiljana Nikolić

Script, camera, directing, eiditng: Andrija Jovanović

Music & sound design: Smiljana Nikolić

THE BIG BAD BAG

(2010)

A short stop-motion animation that originated from a wish to bring significance to something totally insignificant and considered as garbage. Making it a star of the small, humorous, witty animation seemed as a perfect choice. The bag proved to be quite resourceful, offering a material hard to tame, but with great results as a reward in the end. Introducing it to a theatre-like surrounding full of similar abstract objects posing as protagonists, created a world that, in its own, funny way, caught some recognizable human behaviors, dilemmas and conflicts. In the end our main character possessed a personality, eager to express its traits even when the film turns into the end credits.

It took one week to make 3000-3500 stills (half of them was removed) and to record the sound effects that in the end were mixed with some presets and couple of famous classical themes.

The film was broadcasted  by a Swiss SRF 2 and shown at “Trash” exhibition in Hamburg gallery “Frappant” in 2013.

Script, camera, directing, light, editing: Andrija Jovanović & Andrija Petrović