Sara Đurović: It is necessary that every author creates from himself

The "Fruit" project, in which the young Montenegrin screenwriter Sara Đurović was also engaged, was selected among eight of the 103 submitted works in the framework of debut feature films from Southeast Europe.

The film, directed by Maša Šarović from Serbia, was supported by the "FIRST FILMS FIRST" program launched by the Goethe Institute.

"Through the story of infanticide, 'Plod' talks about social and family pathology. Also, to quote the director Maša Šarović: it is a direct and harsh depiction of the life of a woman", says Đurović for "Vijesti".

The project was also supported by the Film Center of Montenegro in 2017 in a competition for co-financing the development of the script, and after the selection among the eight best debut feature films from Southeastern Europe, Đurović points out that he has only one expectation from the achievement, which is in the announcement: "And that is for the film to be good. It's not enough," she says.

Given that she is a young screenwriter, she already has several notable engagements, among which the play "Isti" - a co-production of the Montenegrin National Theater and the Macedonian National Theater of Skopje - directed by Damjan Čitkušev stands out. Đurović wrote the script for this play when she was in her first year of studies, and "96 pages of text were created in two nights, because the material was collected for many years", she once said, and that play was noticed and awarded in 2013. at the CNP competition for a contemporary domestic dramatic text by unestablished authors "Skroz nova drama".

"'The Same' is a drama about (not) growing up. The main character is a teenage anti-heroine. The play, like the text, follows the events from her point of view through fragmentary dramaturgy. The idea relies on the irrational. It takes us subconsciously and childishly into the world of imagination. And imagination liberates. Scary. Revisits a painful past. Jovana (15) is coming to spend the summer with her father, grandmother and aunt, from whom she is estranged. Mother is not here. Jovana escapes into the world of imagination and memory. She finds hope in her friend with an unusual name... And she is an unreliable narrator...", Đurović said about the text, and when asked by "Vijesti" whether there are (auto)biographical segments in "Isti", considering the subject matter, but that it is one of those pieces that come into existence "in one breath", the screenwriter answers:

"I think it is necessary that every author creates from himself, whether it is his personal lived experiences, attitudes, observation of society and people around him, or interests. Everything else is some fancy and confection, and I'm not interested in that. At the university, professor Milena Marković, who refined me as a writer and as a person, taught me the difference between private and intimate, and I stick to that," she says and adds that no matter how much someone tries to isolate themselves and even leave a part of themselves and their own experiences and reflections in the scenario, it one day becomes "everyone's".

"When the writing of the text or scenario is finished, then it stops being just yours, and becomes everyone's, which is another thing Professor Marković taught me."

Đurović reveals to "Vijesta" that the topics she is particularly interested in are alienation, growing up, family pathologies, but she leaves open the possibility that this "changes over the years".

Given that she is young and that her career is still ahead of her, "Vijesti" was also interested in how she sees the local scene, the market, and how much space there is for younger artists based on her previous experience...

"To illustrate survival and survival in this business, I quote Depeche Mode's song 'Everything Counts': 'Everything counts in large amounts'. They have many better songs, but this one is the most indicative. Cultural institutions and individuals should listen to young authors. According to my past experience in Montenegro, they had and I thank them for that," she concludes. Đurović is currently committed to further work on the script "Fruit", and in addition, she is also announcing another project that is certain.

"It is a short feature film directed by Jovana Avramović 'Days Lost' (working title: Two) which is currently in the sound processing phase, for which I wrote the script, as well as a short feature film directed by Sara Stijović 'Idiot', in the editing process, on which I am a co-writer," she reveals.

Sara Đurović was born in 1995 in Podgorica, grew up in Nikšić, and studies at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade.

"Aura" is a tribute to Ian Curtis and the band "Joy Division"

And the play "Aura" directed by Nevena Rajković was based on the play text by Sara Đurovič. In that drama, Đurović portrays Ian Curtis, the frontman of the band "Joy Division", and it seems that through the creative process, she conducted an authentic study, an analysis of the personality that Curtis represents - "difficult nature, the ideological leader of the band", and through the script and the setting, the aim is " elucidating the mechanisms that lead such a person to commit suicide".

We can distance ourselves or not from the frontman of "Joy Division", because it is a topic for everyone, a social problem that raises many questions from love, creativity, relationships within the community, responsibility, suffering, but also" youth, which with its inherent energy is ready to destroy all borders”. Đurović also revealed to "Vijesti" how she, as the author of the script, approached all of this and how complex it was for her to approach all layers of society and phenomena in it from multiple segments, which we all actually live...

"Every creative process is multi-layered and complex. 'Aura' was inspired by Deborah Curtis's memoirs 'A Distant Touch' in the use of some situations from Ian Curtis' private life and in the Ian/Debor relationship, a few band interviews and the film 'Control' in creating the band's life and relationship, as well as the Ian/Anik relationship, but what influenced me the most was the music and lyrics of 'Joy Division' in creating the atmosphere of the drama, as well as some feeling that the time in which they created Joy Division, the time we live in today, is an alienating time, more precisely, that their music is eternal", he points out Đurović.

The time in the play lasts five years and includes Ian's life immediately before the turbulent period of parting with the other band members and his family, through the turbulent years spent at gigs, the first album and the band's breakthrough in the charts and finally - the death of the author. Đurović adds that the play is a kind of tribute to Kurtis, but also the result of the young screenwriter's personal interest.

"The piece is a kind of biography - a tribute to Ian Curtis and the group 'Joy Division', with a certain amount of artistic freedom. 'Joy Division' is one of my three favorite bands, along with 'Pixies' and 'Violent Femmes'. I see Ian Curtis as a poet who I really appreciate whose texts I read again and again", Đurović points out.