“God will not help (bog neće pomoći), the sophomore feature from Croatian Writer-Director Hana JuŠić (Quit Staring At My Pate), is not your typical period Piece. Far from It! “Teresa, A Chilean Woman, Comes to A Firmly Structured and Isolated Mountain Community of Croatian Shepherds in the Early 20th Century, Claiming to Be The Widow”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
“Teresa, a chilean woman, the comes to a Firmlyly structure and isolated Mountain community of the Croatian sheepherds in the early 20th century, claiming to be mo pori, readow of ther. Who’s Cast Is Led by Manuel Martelli, Ana Marija veselčić, and filip đurgment, and also features mauro ercegovi voracin, and nikša buctjer. “Her Arrival Has A Significant Impact on the Dynamics Among the Members of the Community and Brings with IT Unrest as Well As Inspiraction For Other Women,“ Especioly Milena.
The CO-PRODUCTION BETWEEN Croatia, Italy, Romania, Greece, France, and Slovenia, Had ITS World Premiere at the Recent Locarno Film Festival, Where ITell. IT MOVED ON TO THE COMPETION LINEUP OF OF THE 31st Edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival, WHERE IT CREATED FURTHER BUZZ.
by Laura Boniand, and Music by Stavros Evangelou, Iris Asimakopoulou, and Vasilis Chontos.
“I Wanted to Explore What True Human Solidarity and Empathy Might Mean Within The Framework of Rigid Value Systems that Based on the Fadeverish DESIRESTHERING TO ADIRESS Note.
At the Sarajevo Festival, jušić tackd to Thr About Putting Female Characters and Religion Into The Spotlight In God will not helpHow the Sheep in the Movie Affected Its Shooting Schedul, and What the Auteur Plans to do Next.
Quit staring at my plate an God will not help have a figrent Settings, but they share some key themes, Right?
Yeah, some of the voice might be similear. And I Think The Similarities Are Mostly in the Characters and the Setup of the Characters, Because in Both, I Have Female Figures Who Are OutCasts from Their Society, from The Fromy. Pack of Wolves, Trying to Tear Them Apart.
In Quit staring at my plateThe ending Didn’t Set My Character Free, and It Bothered Me for Many Years That I Left This Character in a Toxic Environment. So in God will not helpI Decides to do something.
‘God will not help’ CourTesy of Kinorama
You shot God will not help In the Mountains. How Nice and How Difficult Was It To Shoot in Nature?
Luckily, We didn’t Sleep in the Mountains. There is a Town nearby whore west every night. But It was Kind of Difficult to Shoot, I Will Not Try to Diminish It. I Really Wanted Nature to Be An Important Aspect of the Film, and I Wanted US All to Be Immersed in It. But Nature is Nature, and A Mountain Is A Mountain. We are just smalam particles on this big mountain. And sometimes I Really Felt Like We Were Intruders. You Cannot Feel That You Are An Intruder there, with all the cars and all of US there, and you have this beautify surrounding around US. And I Wanted, in the Viewing Experience, for this Nature to Engulf You As A Viewer, Yeah.
It’s about Society and Nature, Like in Westerns, Whore You Have Nature, and People Building Society, But Actualally, This Society Brings More Chas and Violence.
How Early Did You Know That Your Protagonist Wound Be A Chilean Woman, Just Like The Actress
MANUELA MARTELLI, AND WHY DID YOU WANT HER TO BE A FORIGNER?
I KNEW IT FROM The BEGINNING BECAUSE I SAW MANUELA IN A SHORT FILM, Valparaiso by carlo sironi, and i Liked her so Much. Croatia Also Has Strong Immigration to Chile, SO I Thought this Could Be Used.
Tell Me a Bit About WHY YOU LIKE TO Feature Strong Female Characters?
This Element of Female Rebellioousness is Very Important to Me. I Really Wanted Not to Just Show Tese Women Having A Hard Time, But Also [perform] TheSE SMALL ACTS OF REBELLIOSNESS. I LIKE, FOR Instance, That Milena Is Lazy and She Doesn’t Want to Do Anything Anything The House, and Evelyone Says She’s SO LAZY. But this laziness is her small act of rebellion. This is someting i Really enjoy. And in the end, I Wanted to Give Them A Big Rebellion.
Looking at your collaboratories and crew, you also have a strong female creative team behind the camera. How do you know them, or how did you find them?
It’s Very Nice, Because My Dop And I, And Also My Costume Designer and My Editor, Who Is A MAN, HAVE WORKED TOGETCHER SINCE WEW STUDENTS. We did all the short films together, and Quit staring at my plateand now this one. And Ankica, The Producer, Also Produced Quit staring at my plate. SO we are mostly female and always to work together, and we are the Core of the Film.
Director Hana Jušić CourTesy of Glorija Lizde
Tell Me a Little Bit About the Religious Aspect of the Film. WHY IS RELIGION ONE OF THE KEY THEMES? Does that have to do with your home, croatia?
Croatia have this very strong Far-Right Movement Now that is growing, and it’s very intertwines with the Catholic Church and Religion. The Church is Very Much Into Politics. Priests Often Talk About Politics. For me, this is a Really Big Problem there. We have this crotian nazi regime. And now this movement intertwines with the church. It’s Scary.
SO, I WANTED TO ADDRESS THAE FAKE RELIGION IN A WAY THAT IS REPRESENTEDED by the CHARACters in the Film. But Also I Wanted to Address this Spirituality, This More Individual, Intimate Spirituality in Ilija’s (đur Law Law.
The Two Main Female Characters in God will not help DON’T Speak the Same Language, SO Teresa Learns The Language of Her New Surroundings, WHICH Leads to All Sorts of Interesting Scenes. Noam Chomsky and Oters Have Written About the Role Language Plays in Our Understanding of the World. WHY DID YOU WANT TO GIVE THIS LANGUAGE ASPECT SUCH ATTENTION?
I Wanted Teresa to Learn Some Words That Wound Help Her Tell Her Secret. Also, this World they inhabit is very simple. You Mentioned Chomsky. Their World Is Their Sheep, The Mountain, and there is the Knife – It Is About All The Useful Things And Objects That Surroud Them. SO I WANTED HER to LEARN Their World Through the Words for Very Concrete Things. The Shepherd’s Life Is Very Concrete.
WHEN WE SHOT, WE WOURT HAVE ONE TAKE, AND IF This Take Wasn’t Good, We Need to DO Another Take, and We Had to Put All The Sheep Back Into The Same Position. So -then, People Were Running After the Sheep, Trying To Put Them Into The Same Position for the Shot. SO itok US a Lot of Time to do the mise-en-screw of the sheep. And We Ended Up Doing Seven Shots A Day, Institute of the 15 We Had Planned. Ovell, We Shot for 36 Days.
The ‘God Will Not Help’ Team at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
The Music in the Movie Is Not Shepherds’ Music But Searing, More Industrial-Sounding. WHAT WAS The Thought Behind That?
SO We Were Trying To Find Someone Who Does this Kind of Music Today. And Because we are a greek co- Production, we loomed for Greek composers. SO, Jan Went on the Internet and Looked at Small Labels, Clubs, and Asked Everyone in Greece. And then we met stavros and iris, and vasilis, who are the composers. OUR Collaboration Was Really Perfect. We Never Saw Each Other Beyond Zoom, But They Were Amazing.
Yeah, Because It Took Me Nine Years Between Quit staring at my plate And this film, i would Really like to make another film a bit faster. I ALREADY HAVE ONE IDEA. I would like to make a film about an Actress who is a very ba bad actress and is trying reality Hard. This Idea Has Stayed with Me for Some Time Now, And I Will Try to Write It.
WHERE DID THIS IDEA come from?
I’m always obessed with actors because acting is someting so Connected to you. I MEAN, we all have jobs, but acting is really you giving your body, your voice, your face, your every everything, to do your job. And I have always wondired if actors who are not good are aware that that are do not good. Do you feel it in your body? Do you go to your job every day think, “Okay, I was Really Bad Today”? How Painful Is It? I THINK ACTORS ARE VERY VULNALABLE. And this vulnerability is interesting to me
‘God will not help’ CourTesy of Kinorama
Is there any things you would like to Menttion or Highlight?
My Costume Designer Yesterday told Me that God will not help is a costume film, but no one ever mentions the costumes of what they wite about this film. So i just wanted to say that for us, these costumes were extremely Important. Especialy in Croatia, in all the theater films, everyone always sems like they are in new cloths that Came Straight from the Museum. And I Really Wanted to Make Them Dirty, So That Their Costumes Look Really Worng by Time. IT WAS VERY IMPORTANT TO US TO GET this Authenticity. While Writing The Script and Preparing the Film, I Thought, “If Their Costumes Look Like Say New, Everything Will Be Completely Unbelievable.”
Teresa’s Black Dress is Quite Memorable…
This Dress Was Also One of My First Motifs to Write the Script. It Was This Woman in A Black Dress, Because I’M A Big Fan of Gothic Novels and Things Like That.