'Pune is the capital of art cinema'

While you often have directors and actors at film festivals praising everything around them, there are a few who don’t mince words and come straight to the point. Director Goran Paskaljevic is one such film-maker, who has tasted the wrath of his own countrymen, finds solace in film-making.

Having been in the city for the 12th Pune International Film Festival (PIFF), Paskaljevic finds India truly amazing. “I had a great experience of life in India for the last two months. I had vacations at Jaipur, Agra and also I presented a retrospective of seven of my feature films in other festivals: Kerala, Chennai, Bengaluru. I was invited by IFFI in Goa to be the chairman of the international jury. So these trips to various parts of the country have made me write another story for my upcoming film, which I have not decided yet; but I can tell you that I am thinking about a beautiful story which would take place in India and which I would love to make with actor Victor Banerjee.” he said.

When Paskaljevic was 16, his stepfather, who was interested in the theatre, got him a job as a ticket collector at the film archives. “I had no salary, but I could watch all films without paying and could get my friends in at times as well.This generated a keen interest in films and soon I went to the best film school in Prague and the whole of Europe,” he said.

Since it is a duty of an artist to be a critic, he began making films and was considered a traitor during the rise of nationalism in Yugoslavia in 1992. “I began making movies that questioned the situation around me and also the policies. I found myself connecting to the situation.”

It is noteworthy that a director of such a great calibre finds film-making a way of telling a story that reflects the life of ordinary people in all its complexity. “What I like most is directing a movie. I often write most of my screenplays with a co-writer. For me, the movie is almost like a human being who breathes deeply during all the shooting. I never know how my movie is going to finish before having shot the last scene.”

Paskaljevic said he believes in giving his actors space and freedom as they are not just actors, but humans as well.

For Paskaljevic, the PIFF is an important festival which attracts at the same time the more traditional spectators as well as young people  and students of cinema. “With the presence of the Film and Television Institute of India and the National Film Archive of India, Pune is the real capital of “art cinema” in India.  The Goa festival is the oldest and most famous and a beautiful opportunity to meet Indian and foreign professionals to exchange experiences. The festival at Kerala is extraordinary as the audience is very passionate and the screening rooms are packed. After the screening the audience would get involved in debates that would last for half an hour. I also lived intense moments of cinema at the festivals in Chennai and Bengalore,” he said

Regarding the screening of films in Blu Ray format Paskaljevic feels the technique progresses very fast. “If the screening rooms are well equipped, you can show without any problem movies in Blu Ray or DCP formats. The audience that comes to see movies at the festivals, does not come to consider the technical aspects of the movies. They come at first for the stories which they are told and for the artistic qualities of the movies.”