During the 45th CIFF Academy, in a special master class event, the award-winning director Danis Tanović shared with the audience how his filmmaking was influenced by the war in the former Yugoslavia and also Italian cinema. Here Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi details the event and the anecdotes and sentiments of the multi-bestowed director and cineaste.
Bosnian filmmaker Danis Tanović, has gathered several accolades throughout his career, such as the Golden Bear, the Palme d’Or, the Golden Globe Award, and the Academy Award. During the 45th Cairo International Film Festival, Tanović was bestowed a lifetime achievement award and was also at the helm of the International Jury. During the Egyptian kermesse the film director held a master class, moderated by Marouan Omara – where he chronicled episodes of his life and mentioned the motion pictures that shaped his way of making films through the years.
Danis Tanović became internationally acclaimed with No Man’s Land (2001), which won him many awards, including an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His journey to the making of this picture was characterized by his personal experience at war. Tanović recalled that when the insurgencies in Yugoslavia began he was studying directing, and he quickly realized no one was filming what was going on. Thus, the camera became the tool to expose the horror of bloodshed. He spent two years learning the craft under the bullets, which led him to focus for some time on documentaries before switching to the fictional genre.
During that time of conflict, Tanović started to acknowledge how cinema can become a portal to release repressed emotions. This is something the director experienced during his early days at the Sarajevo Film Festival that began in the midst of the war. Despite the bombings Tanović went to the kermesse, wondering whether it would take place, since there were also problems with electricity. While fending off the attacks of the snipers, he managed to arrive at the cinema to find a full house. People who by now were accustomed not to weep over the death of their loved ones, ended up in tears as the credits of The Bodyguard (1992) were rolling. Hence, the magic of cinema made everyone drop their emotional defenses.
Many amusing anecdotes were shared by Tanović concerning the collaborators who worked with him on No Man’s Land. For instance, the first time he met producer Čedomir Kolar was in 1999, when he told Tanović he could not look at his script because he was busy until 2004. Eventually the Bosnian director did not have to wait that long, to have his screenplay read and produced. Cinematographer Walther van den Ende had a pragmatic approach to the way scenes were staged and would have no issue in openly saying whether he might find some directorial choices boring, which would push Tanović to find better solutions. If language could have been an initial barrier between editor, Francesca Calvelli – who spoke only Italian at the time – and Tanović, the universal expression of cinema overcame these hurdles, to the point that the editor would slap the director’s hand if he tried to take over her mouse while cutting the picture.
No Man’s Land can be considered the blueprint of the filmmaker’s scriptwriting and directorial approach, in the way he always finds inspiration from literature and history of cinema. The stage too is essential, and this is why his award-winning film is characterized by a theatrical dramaturgy. Filmmakers are storytellers who may nurture their work through the artistry of those who preceded them, which is why the director recommended fledgling moviemakers to study the works of writers and cineastes of the past.
In these regards Tanović spoke about his admiration for 20th Century Italian filmmakers. He cherishes Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time in America (1984) and Once Upon A Time in The West (1968), as well as the works by Fellini, Bertolucci, Pasolini, Antonioni, and De Sica. For instance, his family drama An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker (2013) – adapted from a script by the late Krzysztof Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz – was inspired by Italian cinema. But above all, the filmmaker from the boot-shaped land who the Bosnian director finds exceptionally gifted is Ettore Scola. For Tanović, works such as A Special Day (Una giornata particolare, 1977); Down and Dirty (Brutti, Sporchi e Cattivi, 1976); and We All Loved Each Other So Much (C’eravamo tanto amati, 1974) feel closer to home.
While molding multiple sources of inspiration in his personal storytelling, Danis Tanović has dissected with sensitivity the concept of art. This is blatant in his film Portrait of An Artist at War (Portret umjetnika u ratu, 1994), which came into the making serendipitously, through a series of circumstances that marked his epiphany in wanting to become a film director. Tanović shared with audiences how different encounters provided him with divergent ways of envisioning the role of art during warfare. He first met a painter who despite the bombings kept portraying a mountainous landscape on canvas, one brushstroke after the next, because he considered it important to preserve the flame of culture. On the other hand, a photographer started burning his pictures to keep warm: art was annihilated in the face of survival. Furthermore, a sculptor told young Tanović that in the army he was going through the most creative phase of his life. The Bosnian filmmaker made an amusing reference to the famous line in Orson Welles’ Third Man, that nods ironically to how Italy for 30 years under the Borgias’ murderous ruling produced exceptional art, whereas Switzerland’s 500 years of democracy and peace, gave wave to the cuckoo clock. Thence, three ways of philosophizing on the concept of art during war brilliantly encapsulated the subjectivity of artistic perception. Every story reflects the cultural background connected to it, this is why Danis Tanović in his role as a teacher at the Sarajevo Film Academy encourages students to follow their path, to boldly pursue their personal vision.
The accomplished Bosnian cineaste underlined that the important trait of the cinematic art is to know the content that is being tackled, and on top of it finding the suitable form to express it. Danis Tanović has made ten feature films, four series, a variety of shorts, documentaries and commercials and still grasps something new on every project. For him, what matters is to understand how this craft is a never ending learning process, which marked an inspiring take away message for the attendees of the Cairo International Film Festival.
Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi
Edited by Steven Yates
© FIPRESCI 2024