1994, Sarajevo. No water, no electricity nor food in the town under siege. Tea Mikic, despite the horrible war conditions, manages to keep her positivity. She lost her husband during the war and is completely self-sufficient. She is getting ready for something in the morning, so she decides to wash her hair even though all her backup supplies are gone. She starts her desperate journey to look for water, and neither her neighbors nor sniper fire can stop her.

Interview with Director/Producer István Kovács

Congratulations! Why did you make your film?

Born in Yugoslavia, the Balkan wars were a part of my childhood. When I was accepted to the University of Drama and Film Arts Budapest, I immediately knew that I will work with this theme. Then my teacher told me this wonderful story of a woman who tries to regain her feminine values and starts her desperate journey to find water in a city where's no water or electricity for months. I thought that there's a fantastic opportunity to tell a much bigger story with a “simple idea". You could talk about humanity and the feminine perspective of war with the simple fact that you want to wash your hair.

Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?

This story has something to everyone and it is very relevant and current despite that the film takes place in 1994.

We are living in turbulent times now, when war is so near and real, that we have to make movies about it and remember what happened in past conflicts. And if you think about that it was happened in the end of the twentieth century in the middle of Europe, then it starts to become frightening. Also, I really wanted to tell one of the brave personal stories of the women of Sarajevo. War can suddenly be anyone’s reality.

How do personal and universal themes work in your film?

They work hand in hand. War movies are very good base material for universal stories. It's the same with our movie. It's a very personal, micro story, and yet, it tells something much much bigger, and that's where universal storytelling meets personal storytelling.

How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?

We started to work with the memoir that my teacher told me. He read it in a book, unfortunately I couldn't find it no matter how hard I tried. But from that little inspiration, we started to build up the structure of the movie. It was a long and precise work, which lasted 10 months from the first scratches to the shooting draft.

What type of feedback have you received so far?

Fortunately, we've experienced very positive feedback and reviews from both the audience and the critics. It is very common that the viewers point out the realness of the world we created and this is a huge compliment to us – it is a student film after all, with very limited budget. And if you think about that it's a period war movie, then you know what kind of big challenges we had during the shooting.

Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?

I feared the possibility of a bad reception because this story is very robust and heavy for a short movie, but to my surprise there was no problem for the audience to understand and accept it, as I said, the feedbacks were very positive.

What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?

I think it is a wonderful thing that we had our Australian premier at a prestigious festival as Flickerfest. Every opportunity is very valuable when we have the chance to show our work to people, and I think wearemovingstories.com is the same opportunity. I am glad our short can travel so far and reach audience.

Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?

Firstly, we have our National Film fund which is funding these student films with our University, then we have several producers, with different input and capacity hence the low-budget and some amazing creatives to achieve the authentic storytelling. Luckily after the festivals such as AFI and the Student Academy Awards in Los Angeles we had distributors, journalists finding us and wanting to know more.

What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?

To stop for a moment and think about the little things in our life. The convenience of our lives. And what would you do to maintain your self esteem under extreme conditions and realise that war can be real and that we connect through our humanity.

What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?

Obviously it is a different POV for those who have been involved in these wars so I would challenge the audience for other kind of debates, such as our personal limitations and how strong we can go as humans for survival. What can you do in tragic times to keep some joy of life or humour?

Interview: February 2019

We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela

Ostrom (A Siege)

Length: 22:00

Director: István Kovács

Producer: István Kovács, Nóra Alföldi, Ernö Mesterházy, Mónika Mécs

Writer: Kálmán Gasztonyi

Key cast: Vedrana Bozinovic (Tea), Mirela Lambic (Amina), Radoje Cupic (Janko), Nenad Pecinar (Nemanja), Zsolt Trill (Milan), László Keszég (Man), Dana Margarita Csumangova (Old lady), Flóra Bicskei(Girl)

Other: IMDB, Vimeo

Made in association with: Film Force Team, Filmfabriq, Inforg-M&M Film Kft., Színház- és Filmmüvészeti Egyetem