Gio MAMI 2023 | Serbia between East and West, tradition and globalization: Nina Ognjanovic.

Serbian filmmaker Nina Ognjanovic (left) and footage from her film 'Where the Road Leads', which is screening at the Mumbai Jio MAMI 2023 film festival.

Belgrade-based Nina Ognjanovic, 28, whose debut film 'Where the Road Leads' (Grand Jury Winner and Audience Award at Slamdance 2023) is screening at Mumbai's Jio MAMI film festival, admits she is not familiar with Indian cinema, but she loves Satyajit Ray's films. This Bengali director's legacy in Indian cinema is something that young filmmakers anywhere in the world can watch, absorb his cinema.

As part of the World Cinema program at the ongoing Mumbai Film Festival, Anu Rangachar has been selecting films for screening. She works''tradition and its movie.

Redacted excerpts:

What movies did you grow up watching and what movies do you dream of starring in? "

I grew up watching all kinds of movies, but probably my favorites (and complete opposites) are Jacques Tati and Quentin Tarantino. I think my first movie takes inspiration from both, though I didn't use them specifically as examples. I'm also very fond of magical realism and would like to create that kind of atmosphere in my movies.

Jana, the main character, who runs in circles around her small Serbian village, looking for an escape. Is it based on you?

'Where the Road Leads' and Jana (Jana Bjelica) herself are heavily inspired by a period in my life when I felt myself moving in circles. I wanted''message because, in my opinion, there is no clear answer to this question. I'm still thinking about it.

Tell me about the making of the movie.

The village where we decided to shoot was probably the most inconvenient place to do it logistically. It was a 45 minute drive from the nearest town, just a dirt road leading up into the mountains. Along the way, the signal from the phone motes would disappear, so we were completely disconnected. Several times people got lost on the way there. If we needed something, we had to go down by car to make a call.

The irony is that when we started filming, the road to the village started to be repaired and the power went out every day, just like in the script. So we spent a month there, isolated, the border between'"reality and the movie being made" has been erased. It was a lot of fun.

The daytime scenes of the rural landscape in this neo-western are amazing, night/darkness is only encountered when a stranger appears. Tell us about the visual grammar?

The appearance of the unannounced stranger is one of the western motifs in the script. As I was writing it, I really imagined that everything should have the same color scheme. The sun is high in the sky. We don't have anything like the Wild West in Serbia, so we decided to do our own interpretation.

It was also important for me to convey to the audience that time passes slowly in the village, almost standing still. That's why we had shots with long plans and panoramas (shot on Arri Alexa Classic in ratio''tail.

There are several aspects to the structure. I wanted the movie to feel the way Jana feels, moving in circles. Then I wanted to make sure that even with the murder and intrigue in the plot, Jana's emotional journey of growing up over the course of 24 hours wouldn't get lost in the background. So the movie ends with a scene we've already seen, but stops before Jana makes her choice to flee instead of return.

I wanted to create mystery around the new guy (Novi, played by Zlatan Vidovic), so studying him through the eyes of other people who either like him or not was a good way to form an idea of his character.

For residents''of the village he means change. Some see it as a good thing, others are opposed to it. For Jana, it represents an opportunity to experience the world beyond the surrounding mountains. He is also escaping from himself.

It was important for Petar (Ninoslav Chulum) and Pavel (Vladimir Maksimovich) that they were always in sync. Two people, one thought. They want to be in charge but can't get the respect of the village elders who think they are fools.

Jura (Igor Filipovic) is the self-governing sheriff of the town who takes himself very seriously. He's an authority figure. Far from perfect, but everything they can dream of.

It's important to trust someone or something. For the people of Jura, that's a person. Naive Jana realizes he can't solve the problem, and it''the moment of her growing up.

What about the movies of Serbia?

The first movie was made in 1911 (silent film "The Life and Deeds of the Immortal Leader Karaђorђe"). Serbia has quite a long movie tradition, peaking during Yugoslavia when Hollywood stars such as Richard Burton starred in some partisan films. In contrast to this was the Black Wave, which produced several Oscar-nominated films. Dushan Makavejev and Aleksandar Petrovic are among the best known names. In the 90s and early 2000s, the industry stagnated. Only in the last seven or eight years has it started again. Among the recently discussed films is "Have You Seen This Woman?", which screened at Venice. Others won awards in Moscow or had commercial''success.

If Serbia is disconnected from Europe and the rest of the world, can the movie be a commentary on that.

I wanted to create my own world in this movie, a world that I could take and put on any map and it would be believable. Serbia used to be isolated, now I would say it's stuck somewhere between East and West, between tradition and globalization.