In an interview with Vijesti, one of the most influential people in the regional film industry, founder and long-time director of the Sarajevo Film Festival, as well as founder and director of Slano Film Days, Mirsad Purivatra, noted that Montenegro has an abundance of stories worthy of the big screen, which the world has not yet heard, but should, and that there are people in the film industry who can tell them in the right way.
He recently visited Montenegro, as a guest of the Film Center of Montenegro (FCCG) during the signing, while last year he was at the Herceg Novi Film Festival, as part of the first edition of Montenegro Film Rendezvous.
Based on his experience so far, he believes that Montenegro is making key steps towards a serious film market, but emphasizes that the ball is now in the hands of the authors. FCCG, he says, is doing a good job, but there is always room for improvement.
Purivatra pays special attention to the equality of women in the film industry and the importance of recently launched programs in the region that give a boost to young female authors, but also to the importance of national festivals, the need for distribution development, as well as educational reforms that include the introduction of film literacy in schools.
"Culture is something that is our upgrade, something we cannot do without and without which we are really going down the wrong path, I would say. Without culture, at the state level, we turn into people who go to betting shops or cafes and so on, and we know that culture and sports are the best promoters of a state or a society," he says, adding that it is necessary to work unitedly and systematically in the fields of culture, film, education...
In an interview with Vijesti, Purivatra talks more about all of this, the potential of Montenegrin cinema, topics that are still waiting to receive the attention they deserve, the importance of film and its position today, as well as why cinema should not disappear from our lives.
You have been in film and cinematography for many years, and recently you have had the opportunity to delve a little deeper into Montenegrin film. How would you describe Montenegrin cinema, what challenges lie ahead, what should be faced, what should authors do, and what should the Film Center do?
I'm glad to come to Podgorica and I'm always glad to see vitality, of course.
I think the Film Center is doing extremely high-quality projects. Montenegro is now part of European programs and institutions, from Creative Europe to EFA, Eurimages and so on, but I think that now a lot is up to the authors and I think that it will be extremely important for the authors to tell those unique, untold stories. Montenegro is an area with so many interesting stories, so the vitality of Montenegro in every respect, from its heritage, through the rural part, the urban part, to the Mediterranean. There are stories everywhere that can be fantastic. And I think that is what not only the European region, but the entire world, would like to see. Those untold stories, those new characters, those, I would say, little, hidden secrets that Montenegro has, that can “work” on a global level. These are things that, in my opinion, have enormous potential. In addition, the beauty of Montenegro, from the mountains, lakes, rivers, sea, as well as the entire heritage that you have, is truly something that is fascinating. There is a lot of potential in these stories that should be shaped in the manner of the modern film language that the world expects today, that is, so that it is not that déjà vu, so that it is not a classic film from the 80s, but rather a free art form, a free film language, which will in some way perhaps be a challenging and newer language, and I think that Montenegro has enormous authorial potential for that, both male and female.
You were recently in Montenegro to officially launch your cooperation with the Film Center, on the Women Filmmakers Support Program. How important is it to support women in film and fight for equality and invest in that field?
I think that without this kind of support, we would easily end up with bad data about the position of women in cinematography. I would say that it is in the nature of our industry that it is seen as a more male job, and there is no reason for it to be that way, for film to be a “male job”. On the contrary, it is important that in addition to directors and actresses, who may have a slightly higher percentage of participation, women are also represented in other sectors of this profession, from costume designers, set designers, screenwriters, cinematographers, sound engineers, lighting engineers and so on…, all of these are opportunities for girls to find their own job after the academy, if they enroll in an academy. I think they should be constantly encouraged, and the project we presented is exactly such an opportunity. You just need to give them a chance. It has already been pointed out how important it is when you have a woman director, because she then immediately pulls at least 50 percent of the female crew with her. So you are not only employing female authors, but you are also employing the entire creative industry. Considering all that, I think these are projects that work on a small sample, but give a chance on a larger level. Here, for example, in Montenegro, if one or two projects are supported in this way, it will be fantastic, because this way you immediately employ a significant number of girls in the film industry for several months.
"Culture is something that is our upgrade, something we cannot do without and without which we are really going down the wrong path, I would say. Without culture, at the state level, we turn into people who go to betting shops or cafes and so on, and we know that culture and sport are the best promoters of a state or a society," he says, adding that it is necessary to work unitedly and systematically in the fields of culture, film, education...
You were a guest at the first edition of Montenegro Film Rendezvous last summer in Herceg Novi. What are your impressions of that, considering that it was the first event of that, industrial, type in Montenegro intended for Montenegrin authors?
I would say that this is perhaps one of the crucial moves that the Film Center of Montenegro is making, and that is to have your own event, your own film industry event dedicated to film authors from Montenegro. It is very simple why I think so. When you participate in such an event, whether in Sarajevo, Cannes, Berlin, you as a Montenegrin author are one of 20 or one of 100 authors who participate in it. Here, all the authors are Montenegrin and you get a focus on what Montenegro is today, which authors, which stories, which projects can interest European or even world co-producers, as well as the entire industry. I think that initially it was a fantastic success and the right thing for the Montenegrin film industry, and I think that the next move that could be made is related to that, and that is to have more, I would say five to ten prominent people present who can work on project development and film placement. This means that the Montenegrin film industry simply has to be part of European co-production and must see processes in which they, domestic film authors, have to master new knowledge. So, the point is not just networking, or networking and meeting people, but also how, from the very development of the project, the authors can receive support from a film co-producer, world sales, but also to meet people from the world's largest festivals. To sum up, we need another five to 10 guests who would hold special workshops and instruct the authors in how European films are made today and how to achieve not only a quality film, but also the placement of that film at festivals in Cannes, Berlin or Venice.
When it comes to film festivals, the only big one in Montenegro is the Herceg Novi Film Festival - Montenegro Film Festival. What would you say, how important is it to work on a network of festivals or to make additional efforts to develop an already established one? What can Montenegro learn from the examples of large film festivals in the region?
I think these are two separate issues. On the one hand, it is important to have a strong national festival. It always brings together not only domestic films and authors, but also numerous guests from the region and abroad who get to know domestic cinema. That is why the Montenegro Film Rendezvous that we talked about is also important. It is significant so that you can gain an insight into what Montenegro is in that cinematic sense.
On the other hand, it is important for the local audience, and local authors, to present the best of world and European cinema. However, the question is what happens when the festival ends? Festivals last five or seven, maximum 10 days, and the question is where the film stays after that. That is why it is very important to work on distribution, it is important to have a distribution network in Montenegro of 20, 30 or as many cinemas in the country as possible and to keep the audience connected to the film. I think that is the basis of everything, because today, with all our mobile or streaming platforms, we are increasingly giving up on cinema, and cinema is a unique experience.
Just imagine when you are together with 10, 20, 50 or 200 other people in the hall and you all witness that one achievement, you experience it... It is something that is truly a unique experience that this black magic cube gives you when watching a movie.
How to attract audiences to cinemas today, given the trend and accessibility of platforms that often bring anticipated or alternative releases even before cinemas? In addition to these platforms, is the price of the ticket perhaps also influencing people's lower interest?
I agree with everything. But that is a question that even Hollywood cannot answer today, but I think that the basis is in some good cooperation between the Film Center of Montenegro, the Ministry of Culture and Media, the Ministry of Education and other actors... We must teach children from an early age that going to the cinema is something like going to the theater, that watching “The Third Man” or “Casablanca” on a mobile phone and watching it in a cinema are completely different. So, we are talking about experience! We are talking about what, in my opinion, would be important to teach children, and that from the first, second, third grade, and that is to go to the cinema and feel all that charm and magic of what happens between people when we laugh together, react, cry and so on.
Furthermore, I think that this is a complex problem that France, for example, is solving very well. Through education, through incentives for cinemas, through incentives for distribution, they do not have a big drop in viewership. This, we see, is a question of the cultural policy of a country.
You mentioned that it is important to teach children about film culture. How do you view the FCCG initiative to introduce film literacy as an elective subject in schools and what would that phrase actually mean?
It is something that is in every person. Culture is something that is our upgrade, something that we cannot do without and without which we really go down the wrong paths, I would say. Without culture at the state level, we turn into people who go to betting shops or cafes and so on, and we know that both culture and sport are the best promoters of a state or a society.
So, working on this film literacy is really something that I think should be done by the ministries of culture and education and others through joint efforts, while we, as film professionals, should be there to help in all of this in the context of creating a good curriculum, to select films that must be seen, equally from the point of view of world classics, European classics, regional and Montenegrin classics. Because, simply put, a young person who does not know the films of Živko Nikolić, for example, has missed a lot in his education and has a big gap, not to mention the great world classics that I have spoken about. You can easily see this when you go somewhere abroad, when you travel. Without culture, art, without films, you are not exactly a citizen of the world.
We need to teach children from an early age that going to the cinema is like going to the theatre, that watching “The Third Man” or “Casablanca” on a mobile phone and watching it in a cinema are completely different. So, we are talking about experience! We are talking about what, in my opinion, would be important to teach children, starting from the first, second, third grade, and that is to go to the cinema and feel all that charm and magic of what happens between people when we laugh together, react, cry and so on.
Are future classics being created in the world of the film industry today?
I think they are emerging, I would say they already exist… I think that film has never been in crisis, not even now. Well, we saw a couple of fantastic films last year. “Anora” is, of course, a good film and deserved to win four Oscars, but one of the films that will, in my opinion, become a classic is the film “All we imagine as a light” directed by Payal Kapadia. It is an Indian film that, unfortunately, India did not nominate for an Oscar, and it would have certainly won it. Several such films have been released and they are by authors who will be considered classics of world cinema in ten to 15 years.
And the blockbusters, where are they?
They exist in blockbusters and that's very good. Well, the authors that we had the opportunity to host in Sarajevo are truly among the greats of directing, and now we have great guests in Slano, from Pavel Pawlikowski, Ruben Ostlund, Michel Frank, there's also Juho Kuosmanen, Joel Cohen... All of them, I think, have made at least one film that can be considered a classic, from "Cold War", "Fargo", "Compartment Number 6" and so on... Therefore, I think there is no fear for auteur films. The authors are here and they will work.
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