Dušan Kasalica

Primavera

While raising a son, a couple haunted by the past, and the selective abortion of their daughter, are given a surprising opportunity for catharsis.

SYNOPSIS

It’s springtime. The young couple DEJAN and ANA expect a baby. On a Sunday, at a family luncheon on an estate by a lake, Dejan’s seemingly magnanimous parents make plans for Dejan, their only son, and his progeny. He shall have land, and on it, he should build a house with his wife, there to await the birth of what must certainly be a baby boy. Next, Ana is at a medical exam under fluorescent lights. A doctor tells her: it is not a boy but a girl - an insult to tradition, a kind of slap in the face. Weak Dejan gives Ana no solace. Under tremendous pressure from the family, the young bride aborts. Years pass. We see Dejan and Ana with VANJA, their son; he is a dutiful child - all they could have wanted. And suddenly, when their boy miraculously turns into a girl one day, this couple has the chance to repair their long-sundered relationship and make up for the past.


DIRECTOR/WRITER
Dušan Kasalica

PRODUCER
Jelena Angelovski

PRODUCTION COMPANY
Meander Film

COUNTRY
Montenegro

Dušan Kasalica

DUŠAN KASALICA (1987) was born in Montenegro. He graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Cetinje, where he works as a professor. His short films were screened at numerous festivals around the world. At the Sarajevo Film Festival, A MATTER OF WILL (2015) was given the Heart of Sarajevo, while SOA (2017) received the Special Jury Award. He is a participant in Berlinale Talents and the Locarno Filmmakers Academy. He is the producer of the film YOU HAVE THE NIGHT (2018) by Ivan Salatić, which premiered in Venice in 2018. THE ELEGY OF LAUREL (2021) is his first feature film, screened at Sarajevo Film Festival in Competition Program. He is a member of the European Film Academy.

PRIMAVERA intends to introduce the topic of women's position in modern Montenegro, while at the same time dealing with mechanisms of the patriarchy that potentially lead to one of the biggest problems in our society - selective abortion. Around 1000 intentional and selective abortions are performed yearly in Montenegro for reasons such as unplanned pregnancies and the baby’s sex. It follows the story of an average, middle-class family from Montenegro that doesn’t make their decisions out of necessity but out of credence. We go through three storylines about women: MARINA, a mother, admits she has never enjoyed life, led by her own bad experiences, she paradoxically preserves the patriarchal ways of treating women; SONJA, her daughter, a progressive, educated woman, who cannot expect any sort of support from her family because men are the ones who need to be taken care of and who are allowed to do as they please, and lastly ANA, a young woman who is expecting her first child while experiencing emotional abuse where everyone is trying to convince her that the only right decision is to expect the birth of a male child. The male character is DEJAN, a son, a brother, a husband and a father, but he is incompetent for any of those roles. The story is imagined as a triptych, with the same characters in three different situations. Besides the characters, the three stories also connect lyrical camera movements above the lake and the thickets surrounding it, combined with abstract sounds resulting from real locations (it will be a mixture of manipulation of nature sounds and the background music in the film). An important element in the story will be the indication of time passing through changes on the estate where everything started. In the first story, the construction of the family house has barely begun. In the second part of the story, the house is halfway built, and in the third part the house is complete, but the family is not.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

Jelena Angelovski

JELENA ANGELOVSKI, an EAVE Producers’ workshop alumna, is a producer at Meander Film. Her credits include Tamara Drakulić’s WIND (2016) and IN PRAISE OF LOVE (2020), YOU HAVE THE NIGHT by Ivan Salatić (2018), TAURUNUM BOY (2018) by Jelena Maksimović and Dušan Grubin and HOMELANDS (2020) by Jelena Maksimović, RAMPART (2021) by Marko Grba Singh, and THE ELEGY OF LAUREL (2021) by Dušan Kasalica.

Production company profile

MEANDER FILM is a production company from Montenegro. The company’s first production was the short fiction SOA (2017), directed by Dušan Kasalica. Its international premiere was at the Sarajevo Film Festival. In 2018 the company produced the short documentary WE ARE THE SONS OF YOUR ROCKS (2018) directed by Ivan Salatić, which premiered at DocLisboa. In 2018, the company's first feature film, YOU HAVE THE NIGHT (2018), had its world premiere in Venice. The second feature-fiction film, THE ELEGY OF LAUREL (2021), had its world premiere at Sarajevo Film Festival in 2021 in the Competition Program.


Where are we at?

TOTAL ESTIMATED BUDGET
710.000 EUR

FINANCES PENDING
630.000 EUR

FINANCES IN PLACE
80.000 EUR

Production timeline

SEPTEMBER 2021 - SEPTEMBER 2024
Project development & Financing

SEPTMEBER 2024
Principal photography

OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2024
Editing

JANUARY - MARCH 2025
Sound Design & Mix / Color Grading

APRIL 2025
Master copy of the film

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