ple in Croatia? There isn’t a director in the world who could an- ticipate that.There is no formula for success in the arts. You have to work a lot, and then the stars also have to align; it must be your moment. At the Pula Film Fes- tival, where the Diary of Diana Budisavljević had its world premiere in front of 5,000 spectators, that rec- ognitionofthe lmanditsaudienceoccurred.Theap- plause lasted for eight minutes, and when witnesses appeared on stage, the entire Arena got to its feet. Do you expect the lm to evoke even strong- er emotions in Serbia – not only the kind that everyone on the planet would feel when con- fronted by such a story of su ering and inde- scribable courage, but also a feeling of eter- nal gratitude? I’m very excited ahead of the premiere of the lm at the Free Zone Festival in Belgrade on 11 th Novem- ber. I don’t want to assume anything; I will submit Di- ana to them in the same way that I submitted it to the Croatian audience. I worked on the lm with my crew for 10 years; we gave the best that we could in that lm, now it’s the turn of the audience. I just dare to hope that this lm will arouse strength and posi- tive emotions in them, because that is Diana’s mes- sage – not fascism or the su ering of children in war. It seems to me that you said that this lm is a sensation because someone decided to touch on that which is otherwise not touched. What is it that isn’t touched in the Balkans and will it perhaps be touched on more often follow- ing your lm? World War II is almost a taboo topic in Croatia, as if only politicians dare speak about it, and only for election purposes. Everyone will tell you that they can no longer bear to hear about the Ustasha and the Par- tisans, about World War II, but when you look at it re- alistically, we haven’t made a lm about that for 30 years. Novels and plays on the subject are also rare. That’s why Diana’s story waited 70 years, because it didn’t serve anyone’s interest. On the one hand, this story means acknowledging that the NDH [Independ- ent State of Croatia] was founded on racist laws and that there were systemic crimes against Serbs, Jews and Roma in it, while on the other hand one needs to face the fact that the Partisans and the Commu- nist Party, which takes the credit for defeating the Ustasha and the fascists, silenced Diana and her ini- tiative to save children from that war. Živko Zelenbrz, Nada Vlaisavljević and Milo- rad Jandrić are today adults who were rescued by Diana. How did they feel watching the lm in Pula? How did they react? That was in nitely touching. We all held hands, squeezed. They saw the lm for the rst time then, with tears running down all of our faces. In our minds was also Zorka Janjanin, who sadly passed away pri- or to the premiere. I lmed the documentary part back in 2015, because I was afraid that it might be too late by the time I raised the money for the fea- ture part. Although Živko, Nada, Milorad and Zorka are all well over 80 years old, we always referred to them as“the children”. You added to Diana’s diary, which you acciden-
Od aplauza su se tresli zidovi Pulske arene, slivale se suze zahvalnosti i ganuća, a Hrvatska se ujedinila i poklonila jednoj veličanstvenoj ženi, Diani Budisavljević, koja je spasla 10.000 dece i pala u zaborav. Sve dok je jedna hrabra Dana, sa kojom deli prezime, nije otkrila i predstavila svetu kako bi konačno dobila sve zasluge koje joj pripadaju The walls of the Pula Arena shook with applause, tears of gratitude and passion owed, and Croatia united and bowed to a magni cent woman, Diana Budisavljević, who saved 10,000 children before being lost to oblivion. That was until one brave Dana with whom she shares a surname discovered her and presented her to the world, for her to nally receive all the credit that she deserves
I n the‘Independent State of Croatia’, racial laws are in force. In the autumn of 1941, Austrian Diana Budis- avljević learns that mothers and children of Christian Orthodox origin are being taken to concentration camps near Zagreb. The number and label of an unde- sirable Serb is also given to her husband, renowned Za- greb doctor Julija Budisavljević. In an atmosphere of fear and menace, Diana and several friends launch a risky campaign from her apartment that results in more than 10,000 children being saved from certain death. Upon the end of the war, her Austrian and urban origins are deemed undesirable for the Communists, the les of the children she led to safety with the intention of one day reconnecting them with their parents are snatched, and silence instead of praise for the greatest rescue opera- tion in World War II remains to the present day. The Diary of Diana Budisavljević is the absolute win- ner of this year’s Pula Film Festival. Awarded the Grand Golden Arena for Best Picture, golden arena awards for best direction, editing and music, it also won awards au- dience and critics awards… Firstcameexcruciatingsilence,thenstandingova- tions that seemed as though they’d never stop, then awards... Could you ever have anticipated that your debut feature lm would cause such a stir? Were you surprised by the responses of peo-
– Radi se o najvećoj civilnoj akci- ji spasavanja dece u Drugom svet- skom ratu. Zamislite kad pročitate nešto tako, nešto toliko ogromno, i shvatite da istorijski gotovo uopšte nije obrađeno. Koja je to odgovor- nost, koliki je to zadatak. Prve tri go- dine smo samo istraživali. Razgova- rali smo s više od 100 ljudi, pretražili 25 arhiva u Hrvatskoj, Srbiji, Austri- ji, tražili sve što smo mogli o Dia- ni i njenim saradnicima, tražili smo preživele i tražili smo dokumente i arhivski materijal kako bismo bi- li sigurni u našu priču. Sve što je u ovom filmu, sve je proverljivo. Iako je to priča iz Dianine perspektive, temelji se na njenom dnevniku, ve- lika je pažnja posvećena tome da je sve što stavljamo u film verodostoj- no. Ne možete veru u ljude vraća- ti lažima, Diana je dugo čekala i za- služila je da verodostojno ispričamo njenu priču. Da li je, osim zahvalnosti i div- ljenja koje svi dugujemo ljudi-
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