Inaugurated in honor of esteemed cinematographer and film author Vedran Šamanović who died before his time, and awarded for the first time at 2010 Pula Film Festival, the annual Vedran Šamanović Award is again awarded to an artist “in any area of filmmaking, in either short or feature film, who has made the most innovative and valuable contribution to Croatian filmmaking”. According to award regulations agreed on by the five film associations-founders of the award (Film Artists' Association of Croatia, Croatian Cinematographers Guild, Croatian Film Directors Guild, Croatian Film Critics’ Association and Croatian Film Association), all Croatian films that have been publically screened from June 30 of the previous year to July 1 of the current year are eligible for the award.
After reviewing the entire Croatian film production of the previous 12 months, the three-member award committee comprised of Radislav Jovanov Gonzo (cinematographer and director, HFS), Alemka Lisinski (film critic, HDFK) and Diana Nenadić (film critic, HFS), decided that the Vedran Šamanović Award goes to the film “Then I See Tanja” by author Juraj Lerotić.
Despite the fact that the basic cinematic device in “Then I See Tanja” – of almost complete elimination of the moving image and its replacement by photography – is already common in world (especially essayist and experimental) film practice, in the context of Croatia the potential of this technique in narrative film was still mostly unexplored and unused. Lerotić very suggestively applies it on the demanding and slippery terrain of psychological drama in which the subjective focalizer/narrator is also the center of a tight existential knot which binds together strong emotions and states ranging from worry and a teenager’s anxiety about the death of his mother and the indifference of the girl he likes, to romantic longing, joy and hope.
Precisely by renouncing movement as a guarantee of life and thus forgoing the continuity of gestures and verbal dialogue which provide emotional cues, the author manages to achieve emotional fullness and to bypass the potential traps of pathos set by the rich emotional repertoire of his film. He maintains an observer’s distance while preserving the lyricism and manages not to succumb to the beguiling emotional manipulation so frequent in works that deal with illness, children, family relationships or first love.
As absurd as it sounds, by using stop-photography and delicate, off-screen first-person narration, Lerotić achieves both ultimate aestheticization and realism, because in this visually intense environment, nothing can escape the senses and emotions of the viewer. By juxtaposing stillness to the moving image, he opens up areas of meaning beyond the story and touch upon the ontology of the film medium as such.
“Then I See Tanja” is also a moving dedication to Split with a lot of sunshine and high exposure in the photographs, creating a visual landscape arranged in the way that lends new beauty and reveals a different face of this modern Mediterranean city.
Zagreb, July 5, 2011
Radislav Jovanov Gonzo
Alemka Lisinski
Diana Nenadić