im-from

about

The approach I intend to take 
and what is important
by Teona Strugar Mitevska

labina-trca

Jas sum od Titov Veles/ I am from Titov Veles is my second film and by the fact of that, a much more ambitious project in terms of directorial approach and form. Comparing to my previous film How I killed a saint where the story required a direct and bold, up in your face method, Jas sum of Titov Veles requires a totally different treatment, it is a new challenge completely.

While How I killed a saint screamed in the viewers face, told the truth through the roughness of the experience, Jas sum od Titov Veles is highly emotional story, a tragedy from it’s start, where I intend to go through the stomach of the spectator.

For sometime I have been very interested in the methods of the Fuge and Bach’s research of the contra-punkt. I intent to achieve a harmony through the symbiosis of the cinema elements, but also through a play within the frame. I see the film as a symbiosis of still frames in the manner of Ozu with the emotional intensity of Polanski’s Repulsion. This is a film in search of beauty in uncomfortable places; this is present in the form as much as in the story content. When I think of it I imagine the experience of proper breading, or as if taking a long deep breath of very cold air.

Although a sad story of family falling apart, the final act of sacrifice of Afrodita, our main character is in essence a noble act and a cry for something that was and is not any more.

In technical terms and what approach to take in order to achieve the best results, I am stern believer in preparation and leaving nothing, well almost nothing to a pure chance. I am in a process of preparing a book of shooting/storyboard, where all aspects of frame, movement and form will be carefully researched and balanced before. I also have the comfort of shooting this film in Macedonia, a relative inexpensive environment, this fact permits me a month or more of extensive actors work, since the piece demands a very precise actor’s play..