IGOR DRLJACA
The Stone Speakers or Kameni govornici by Igor Drljača, (Canada / Bosnia and Herzegovina) will premiere internationally at the prestigious Berlinale, The Berlin International Film Festival on February 12 and then for five subsequent screenings as part of the Forum Lineup. The Berlinale is one of the three major film festivals in the world along with Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival and the Forum Lineup is chosen from a myriad of offerings from international filmmakers; it’s extremely competitive. The Forum films can be documentaries or narratives and are edgier in tone.
The Stone Speakers, produced under the auspices of Igor’s company Time Lapse Pictures, national premiere was at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018 and then was shown shortly after at the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Igor’s Biography: https://theatrefilm.ubc.ca/persons/igor-drljaca/
Synopsis
Present-day Bosnia-Herzegovina is a country still reeling from the civil war in the early 90s. The Bosnian economy never recovered, and the country remains divided. In order to cope, many towns have transformed themselves into unique tourist destinations that bring together history, religion, politics and folklore. The tourist sites promoted are not only a reflection of people’s attempts to make a livelihood but are also a means to promote and establish competing narratives about the country’s past, present and future. The Stone Speakers explores four towns in Bosnia-Herzegovina through their tourism, slowly unravelling these competing narratives.
The Stone Speakers Credits
Written & Directed by
Igor Drljača
Produced by
Igor Drljača
Albert Shin
Director of Photography
Amel Djikoli
Edited by
Igor Drljača
Line Producer
Amira Lekić
Production Sound Mixers
Nirvan Imamovic
Predrag Doder
Dialogue Editor
Matthew Chan
Sound Designer
Aaron Mirkin
Re-Recording Mixer
Matthew Chan
Mix Assistant
Will Stephens
Director’s Statement
In The Stone Speakers, I wanted to explore the relationship between recent tourist sites and attempts to create competing national narratives in post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina. These divergent narratives and the relationship between Bosnia’s ethnic groups continue to be a source of misunderstanding and tension. The tourist sites may appear to be innocuous enough, but all have underlying narratives which suggest an alternative Bosnian or regional history.
Today’s Bosnia-Herzegovina was created through the Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the civil war in the 1990s. The Accords enshrined the division of Bosnia’s population into three primary ethnic groups: Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats. The process of ethnic cleansing during the war has also ensured that these groups largely live apart, with only some areas of the country retaining its pre-war multiethnic character. Little progress has been made since the war to address these divisions, and the country remains economically and socially unstable. Bosnia’s problems are worsening: it has the most severe unemployment rate in Europe (44%), and its population is constantly declining.
The one bright spot is the country’s rapidly growing tourism industry. Bosnia’s unspoiled natural sites, and its rich history, have begun to attract tourists from all parts of the world. But the cultivation of the country’s tourist industry has not been immune to persisting divisions. Some of these tourist sites perpetuate competing narratives in curious ways, many of which can appear eccentric to outsiders. These eccentricities help to mask the ultimately perilous nature of the narratives perpetuated, as they continue to erode Bosnia’s fragile peace.
While the film was being made, events around the globe have increasingly become characterized by similar efforts to write and rewrite facts and history. Where Bosnia once stood out for its eccentricities, it can now bizarrely appear to be at the vanguard of a more global destabilizing movement, one which questions our deeply held beliefs about truth and fiction, right and wrong, and exclusion and belonging.
Timelapse Pictures
TimeLapse Pictures is an award-winning production company based out of Toronto, Canada, committed to producing original and artist-driven cinema. Founded in 2008 by filmmakers Igor Drljaca and Albert Shin, the company has produced narrative and documentary films that have played in major festivals all over the world including TIFF, Telluride, Locarno, San Sebastian and Rotterdam. Collectively, their films have garnered multiple awards and nominations from the Canadian Screen Awards, The Korean Wildflower Film Awards, Abu Dhabi Film Festival, Festival Du Nouveau Cinema, Taipei International Film Festival, among many more.
The companyʼs most recent production, The Stone Speakers, a feature doc exploring the intersection of tourism and ideology in post-war Bosnia will be having its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2018. Tabija, a Canadian-Bosnian co-pro, written and directed by Igor Drljaca, is currently in pre-production and slated to begin filming in the summer of 2019.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/berlin-film-festival-unveils-2019-forum-lineup-1177214
