FACING THE DAY
DIRECTOR: IVONA JUKA
CROATIA 2005
74 MIN / BETA SP, COLOR, OV w. engl. ST

Caligari: 06.04. / 2.30 pm
Bellevue-Saal: 07.04. / 8.00 pm

DIRECTOR:
Ivona Juka

CAMERA:
Mario Oljaca

CREATIVE SUPPORT:
Daniel Kusan

EDITOR:
Ivor Ivezic

SOUND RECORDIST:
Igor Segovic

PRODUCER:
Anita Juka

PRODUCTION:
4 FILM, Zagreb

DISTRIBUTION:
4 FILM, Zagreb
Tel.: 00385 - 1 / 482 87 74
Fax: 00385 - 1 / 482 87 74
e-mail: office@4film.hr

A documentary which centres on inmates of the prison in Lepoglava, Croatia, and their rehearsals for a production of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. The prisoners’ free adaptation of the play thematizes prison life and their interpersonal relationships. As they present “their” jail, they tell us why they are there. The proud and bullish Tulio, for instance, is serving time for armed robbery. He is cast as Pyramus, a role he accepted only after being told that Pyramus was the most powerful and sought-after man in Athens. It is Tulio’s second stay in Lepoglava: Robbery, he says, is the only way to get by in Croatia, but isn’t as good as it used to be – like many other things in that republic. His fellow inmates Maki and Zane are convicted murderers. Deciding his life had reached a dead end, Maki gave himself up to the police. He is religious, and sits alone at the prison church services. Zane spends his time painting, unable to face the question of how, if he ever met a woman who might love him, he would explain what he did. For him, the applause from the first-night audience is a singular recognition of his personality. All of the men we see are in a low-security unit: If they chose, they could simply walk out the gate to the neighbouring village. But instead they stay – life outside would hardly be an improvement. Ivona Juka’s film casts an unprejudiced eye on the life of these men, who are wedged between several worlds at the same time.

IVONA JUKA
Ivona Juka studied at the Academy of Dramatic Art – ADU Zagreb. She directed short films, music videos, TV commercials, animated films and won several national and international prices. Her short feature SMECE was presented at goEast’s students’ film competition in 2004. In 2005 she participated at the Berlinale Talent Campus. FACING THE DAY is her first long documentary.

FILMOGRAPHY (SELECTION):
2003 Smece / Garbage (short feature film)
2003 Nista vise / Nothing Else (short feature film)
2005 Plavi Poni / Blue Pony Bicycle (short documentary)
2005 Dobrodosao kuci, brate! / Welcome Home, Brother! (short documentary)
2005 Postcard from Croatia – EDITING (short film)
2005 Facing the Day / Facing the Day