Butterflies of "Youth" swim through life

What does fear smell like? What does fear sound like? What shape does fear take?

The answers to these questions often remain incomplete or open, but that is precisely why they have such a powerful effect. Fear is perhaps one of the strongest motifs in the film “Butterfly” by the young Montenegrin director. Sara Stijović. Fear, but also hope.

Created in collaboration with the residents of the “Mladost” Home for Uncared Children in Bijela, “Butterfly” was originally conceived as an educational process through which children would learn about film, acting, camera, sound and directing. However, as the author herself points out, reality quickly overcame the script. Instead of the film that was planned, the one that was needed and that practically gave life meaning was created.

Thus, unlike films that speak loudly, face to face, about similar life themes, which have a precise goal and means, “Butterfly” by Sara Stijović chooses a different path. Neither the director nor the participants try to produce some kind of shock, sensation, pathos, nor to “sell” someone else’s pain and fate to the audience’s gaze, but rather simply bear witness, through the words of children-butterflies who, despite everything, are just children.

One of the film's greatest assets is definitely the way it approaches children. Their faces remain protected, their anonymity ensured, their voices adapted, and their stories are not used as a means to provoke cheap emotions, but rather to deeply question themselves, society, the system, family, everything, everyone, and everything. Although a look and a face sometimes say a lot, they still do not prove the truth of the experiences expressed; the trembling and sincere voices of children who carry the burden of memory and testimony, the burden that no child should ever have to bear, are enough.

Throughout the film, we hear stories of violence, poverty, families destroyed by abuse, death... We hear sentences that seem almost unbearable while being spoken so easily and simply in a child's innocence and silent suffering. The murder of an older brother, violence against a mother, poverty, separation from siblings, there are just a series of traumas and anxieties that few can bear. One child also says that he doesn't love his parents... Neither do his siblings, he adds after a short pause... That sentence hovers as it devastatingly shatters one of the most basic assumptions of childhood - that parents are a place of security, warmth and unconditional love. Another wouldn't go home... A third would wish that he wasn't hungry, thirsty and cold at home. The next one would like to, when he grows up, provide his mother with enough for a carefree life... One of the children was thinking about a way to take his own life...

For many children, carefreeness is not a reality but an unknown... However, the "Butterflies" of "Mladost" live and win... Stijović perfectly depicts this in the balance of different life extremes. We see them laughing, playing, learning, socializing, cleaning, eating, swimming... Thus, "Butterfly" does not depict utter hopelessness, nor absolute serenity... Despite all the traumas, we are not faced with victims, but children who (try to) grow, learn, love and dream. We see their discipline, curiosity and willingness to discover the world. We watch them learn new skills, ask questions and seek answers. How they joke. How they run, swim, enjoy, how they rejoice together, how they whisper... How they rejoice for Sara (Stijović), how they hang out with the actor Pavle (Prelević)It is precisely because of all this that the film remains deeply humanistic, optimistic and powerful in its depiction of resilience, perseverance, humanity and (moments of) happiness.

Visually, the film connects the entire story with the motif of water and swimming. Throughout the entire film, shots of swimming, jumping into the water, diving and surfacing alternate. It is no coincidence that the film is titled “Butterfly”, as Stijović explained earlier. Butterfly - as a swimming style, is one of the most demanding and difficult to master. And as a living being, the butterfly is gentle, fragile, spirited and amazingly resilient. The combination of these symbols contains the entire idea of ​​the film, and the children, the so-called residents of the “Mladost” Home, despite the circumstances in which they grow up, swim butterfly through their own lives every day and are truly butterflies of different goals and desires... They struggle with burdens that most of their peers will never know, but they remain spirited, curious and capable of believing in the beauty of the world.

Pavle Prelević and the boy give a special shape to Sara Stijović's film Petar Begović, which run like silent threads through the story but make it full, believable and strong. Their presence gives structure and rhythm to the work, while at the same time reminding us that growing up is an ongoing process, complex for everyone in its own way... They remind us that questions of identity, fear and belonging do not end with the exit from one life phase, but also that the soul of a child is purer than any close-up camera shot, that an honest and truthful word is sometimes braver than any action, and that the eyes that look directly into a difficult life are the most cheerful and innocent. We practically watch Pavle and Petar in the film of the film, while they themselves create the course of the plot and without imposition or false acting, play in it... Through all this, Stijović once again shows that the strength, skill and beauty of film most often lie in humanity and the right approach.

What makes "Butterfly" especially valuable is the fact that, not only does it not leave the audience indifferent, but from the first frame, the first testimony and confession, it displaces them from the comfort of their own microcosm and creates empathy, encouraging the desire for the world to change and be better...

After the screening, sighs and applause echoed to the seashore. Admiration and support, but at the same time some devastating sadness and a sense of responsibility, injustice, if only because of ignorance, if not more... The question remains how it is possible that not a single child from the Home has continued their education for years after leaving the system. There is also a feeling of resentment towards the community, the system, society, the state and the world that accepts such facts as normal. But there is also hope that the brave, strong and cheerful children instill. They remind us how valuable sometimes is just a moment of happiness, attention and love. They, led by director Stijović, show that art can open up space for conversation and raise enormously important topics, leaving hope that a film can encourage someone to look at children differently, whom we often observe only through statistics and institutions. There is also hope that the experience that Sara Stijović gave them will last much longer than the filming process itself, but also that something will really change in the deaf and ignorant space in which the most helpless are most often neglected.

“Butterfly” once again directs us to the children from the “Mladost” Home in Bijela, to the need for us all to be seen, heard and accepted, but also to see a little better, listen more carefully and accept more lovingly. The young “Butterflies” have experienced fear too early, but they have not given up, they dream of a beautiful life and all possible joys...

Reality is more important than fiction

At the very beginning of the film, but also in the synopsis, devastating information is presented, which, so far, is obviously the most serious and moving thing the team of the film "Butterfly" took, and then took action on the matter...

"In the last seven years, no child, after leaving the Home, has continued their education. In a bid to change that one day, 15 children - aged 6 to 12 - participated behind and in front of the camera. From us, the film crew, they learned about acting, camera, sound, and directing. However, their life stories overcame the prepared script. Reality became more important than fiction, and honest conversation more valuable than written dialogue. Thus, a lesson about film became a lesson about life," the description of "Butterfly" reads.

The film was produced by the Faculty of Dramatic Arts Cetinje, and premiered at the prestigious Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival in Belgrade. It is a graduation thesis from the specialist studies in film directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts Cetinje, created under the mentorship of full professor. Marija Perović. The film crew is completed by a director of photography. Nemanja Dabanović, assembler Will Domingos, sound designer Luka Barajević.

Starring Pavle Prelević and Petar Begović, the following appear in the film for the first time: Pavle Benderać, Nemanja Damjanović, Filip Đuričić, Nikola Gudeljević, Viktor Konjević, Danilo Nikolić, Petar Njegovac, Andrija Preočanin, Vasilije Satara, Nikola Tomašević, Maksim Vlaović.