Mila TURAJLIC, director of the film "The other Side of Everything" and one of the three films running in competition for the Lux Prize 2018, gives an insight view about the endavour to produce this film.

Brussels

interview

LUX Cinema Prize 2018 (T)

Lux Prize 2018: interview of Mila TURAJLIC "The other Side of Everything"

SOUNDBITE (English), Mila TURAJLIC, film director , I wanted to try and tell something about the history of my country using my family&rsquo;s story as a kind of chronical of the events. And it was important for me to try and talk about history from a very personal point of view. The difficulty, obviously, is that you are letting people into a very intimate space, into your family home, into your family relationships. And it was there, when it was hard for me to try to make something very universal for something that is very personal.

SOUNDBITE (English), Mila TURAJLIC, film director , There is a scene at the end of the film when my mother looks kind of straight into my eyes and says: &ldquo;I am too old to continue speeches and activism. And it is your turn now&rdquo;. And I have a moment when you see me thinking. And I say: &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t do it&rdquo;. And she says: &ldquo;Well, if you can&rsquo;t, someone of your generation will have to&rdquo;. And I think, that is what I really want people to think about. That moment when she is passing the torch to me is, I think, a moment, when she is passing it on to my entire generation in Europe. And the question is there: Will we speak up and will take responsibility for what is happening around us?

SOUNDBITE (English), Mila TURAJLIC, film director , It was very stunning for me when the film came out in Serbia, because it is a documentary but it ended up doing incredibly well in cinemas and I think, most of that has to do with the fact it told the story that young people haven&rsquo;t heard and it also speaks to young people about these questions, which everyone in Serbia faces: living the country or staying? And if you are staying are you switching off and disengaging or are you trying to take some kind of role in building a better country for yourself? And it opened a lot of questions that we&rsquo;ve haven&rsquo;t really discussed in a long time.

SOUNDBITE (English), Mila TURAJLIC, film director , Obviously when I was making the film, she didn&rsquo;t realise what I was doing and she didn&rsquo;t know that she will be such a central character in the story. So there was a long period of readjustment for her, but I think she understands it as a conversation between the mother and the daughter. And she hopes that this is a conversation that is taking place everywhere between these two generations because it is a film about heritage. So I think for that perspective she is quite happy to have been part of this and very curious, I think, to see what it could aspire.

SOUNDBITE (English), Mila TURAJLIC, film director , It is absolutely extraordinary opportunity because I don&rsquo;t think my film would have gone so wide and have been seen so much on its own, but there is something else that is special, because it is shown within the context of the Pre Lux, I think it&rsquo;s really positioned to open a debate. A debate about engagement, a debate about Serbia&rsquo;s place in Europe. But I think, even more personally, a debate about responsibility that each one of us takes. So just to have it framed within the Lux prize is an extraordinary thing for the film.