Director's biography:

Matija Kluković
Born in Zagreb, 1982. Most of his earlier years were dedicated to basketball. He was trained by some of the modest, yet one of the most important basketball coaches of our time- Bane. In 1999., he chose another discipline.

From then on, he worked on some features as an assistant director, wrote scripts for some bad television series, directed music videos for local artists, made few shorts, screened them at some of the festivals, talked to the people, listened to them, not listened to some of them, worked on cheap and untruthful projects held by the system, made some money, made friends with people who were willing to put pieces of their heart, body and soul into something they believe. His ego still shies away from the local architects, presuming their responsibility would forever be the most giant one.

Festivals:

Libertas Film Festival, Dubrovnik
Zagreb Film Festival (BEST DEBUT FEATURE AWARD)
International Film Festival Rotterdam
Cinema Jove Film Festival, Valencia
Slow Film Festival, Eger
CFF, New York

Statement:

First: only precondition for collaboration on this film was to be young. If not physically, than spiritually, because we have done a lot of thinking, brainstorming and realized that that is the defining characteristic necessary for this film to be able to portray vivacity and resistance, but also to keep its innocence.

Second: Only obvious goal was to be honest, without restraints, definitions and shortcuts.

That is why all directors’ statements, storylines and any other short forms necessary for the interpretation of the experience which was attempted to create, will always carry the label of dangerous necessity. Form of the film is a limitation in itself, shortened by its nature, and so 102 minutes of “Slow days”, is the shortest form of the experience based on YEARS of work, observations, life and dilemmas of a group of associates. Emphasis was on portraying all of us as individuals, the way we are and not the way we could be. Nevertheless, we portray ourselves as someone else, most of the time we talk about ourselves, we plan and get tired and in the meantime we are not listening, not watching the person in front of us, not learning from each other from our distorted appearances. Every person is its own biggest problem which we never solve, and to find ourselves among a mass of people is a lot more difficult than creating an idea what someone should be. Sometimes we are smart and sometimes we are jerks; we are never defined.

Definitions represent death. They are created to be able to stand for themselves, and that is why this statement will end on broad definitions, because it is scared to death of being defined. By definition, film is life without boring details. Unfortunately, film has become entertainment even when we talk about “big”, respectable films. There are no big or small films. Only truthful and untruthful. We were interested in making a movie about a hole in time, about a routine that represents the most part of an unbearable life, space in which we plan, lose sense of value, sink, make fast decisions, anticipate “situations” which would help us escape from the moment which bugs us, and when these situations appear, we are already expecting new ones. All of us, friends, have learned, absorbed, talked, planned over and over again and than crossed out, thrown out, going back to staring at the ceiling. “Slow days” is trying to portray people, environment in which authors have spent recent years, and were like everybody else: collectors of never fulfilled ambitions.

Realization of this film is only one of those ambitions. We plan to make films for as long as art does not become redundant. Or we will give up and than the serious overtone of these statements becomes uncomfortably ridiculous. All films would be about the same things, of course. They would be about love and its absence, about freedom and self-control, about friendship and personality, about hunger for greater knowledge and indifference, about questioning and attacking selfishly imposed rules of the system, about patience.

“Slow days” is demanding. It demands patience while it portrays fragments of an everyday life of few dozens characters: their wishes, their search for motivation, while at the same time few plots develop simultaneously. Division to leading and supporting characters is not present. Goal was to make all characters equal serving the finishing effect – to fell the people as whole.

About the shooting :

In May 2003 preparation for a short feature film „Na ulici na mjesečini“ (In the street under moonlight), a tribute to Branko Bauer's classic „Martin u oblacima“ (Martin in the clouds). „Na ulici na mjesečini” was supposed to be about a spark that lights up between two teenagers whose lives are thorn between three towns. That screenplay does not exist since then. At actors’ rehearsals each scene was changed on the behalf of the characters, and that caused the story to change dramatically. At the same time production was making a shooting schedule, obtaining free of charge use of location, creating a proper budget. We thought, we’ll make it happen with 800 euros, because all our previous short films were made for less than that. DVCam is format we all know well, it is inexpensive – we can volunteer, nobody is paid and we can shoot everything within 7 scheduled days. That is how our megalomania started to grow and it was accompanied by a rotten calculus: “We plan to make a 30 minute film for 800 euros in 7 days. Right. Why shouldn’t we than make a 90 minute film for 2400 euros in 21 days?”

The shooting finished recently, in May 2006. We used up over 150 scheduled shooting days, over 700 editing sessions, months and months of actors’ rehearsals. (Has anybody regretted accepting to volunteer?) At one point film duration was supposed to be over 150 minutes, and we were still shooting and cutting and rewriting the scenes that we already shot couple of times, than rehearsed them some more to shoot them again and again and it seemed like this project would never end. Than, after 3 years, when we least expected it, it was over.

Almost over, because those 2400 euros was nothing but a lie. Multiply that by few tens of times, take away half, and you are left with the sum that we still owe. But in our hands we have a slow developing black and white film in which characters are not slaves to the story, in which we have something to say. We are counting on the fact that the audience will hear us, but on the other hand, we are offering a film in which nobody listens to anybody. Our mission is difficult, but it was headed straight ahead. We do not have rich parents. We are going to festivals only ‘cause of free meals and coupons for drinks. A question poses itself: What made us do all this?

We fantasized about making a film that will celebrate human. Not what someone should be, but what it is, how it risks, how it puts itself in the open, is it willing to change for its own benefit and for the benefit of those around them. Saul Bellow once said: “Man must change, he must change.” Mihovil Pansini added: “Man will always manage to get by.” J. L. Goddard warned: “Young people, you need to watch.” John Cassavetes motivated: “Film what you are.” Charles Mingus made beautiful music. The system could not hold us down if we have turned our back to it. Independent production is a difficult and complex area of work, because we all stand in front of ourselves and wish to turn out pretty. Pretty does not necessarily mean that it is truthful. Ugly is also not necessarily truthful. Truth is what is, but there is always the danger of justification and with it the danger of immobility and decay. Value of that whole experience, during the three years, motivated us not to give up until we learn enough to create. In spite all the problems that accompanied this production from the very beginning.

Curse of 2003: Director of photography is leaving the project two days before the beginning of the shoot, and his position is taken by Bojana Burnać, debutant on a feature length film, who did not get the screenplay on time, let alone do necessary shooting rehearsals. So we shot the film in documentary style, accompanied by pure improvisations, and this kind of style continued throughout the whole film. Eight out of ten scenes which we shot at the end of that year will end up in trash, and our budget will disappear (this will happen many times during the making of this film). Fights became part of this process, equipment was letting us down, transportation and time was speeding past by us while we accepted how slow we work. More on the curse of 2003 in the documentary “Making of Slow days” which will be out soon.

Curse of 2004: Two actresses quit the film for private reasons and their scenes are shot again with new actresses. Co-production company, which gives us free equipment, leaves the project. Locations on which continuity scenes are to be shot during shooting breaks have changed drastically. Actors are annoyed by having to play a summer scene in summer clothes and the temperature is -10. More on the curse of 2004 in the documentary “Making of Slow days” which will be out very soon.

Curse of 2005: Few edited scenes mysteriously disappear from the machine we worked on for months. Our dear boom operators, the best in the country (they have worked on The Gladiator, Schindler’s List etc – I guess that is a valid technical recommendation), have to leave us and take other jobs which are better paid and paid on time, because they have donated enough of their time to an unorganized group who is still learning how this work is supposed to be done. Furniture in the apartment which we got for shooting of few scenes disappeared over night. Scenes are being changed and saved. More on the curse of 2005 in the documentary “Making of Slow days” which will be out pretty soon.

2006 Divine: Even though in 2006 we wasted a lot of time and money in vain (an expensive aggregate unit burned even more expensive sound equipment – we had to pay for the both; locations are canceled day before the scheduled shoot so once again we find ourselves on unknown locations, etc, etc), we have finally finished the film that we can be proud of. We have stubbornly refused to finish it until it became honest, personal and strong.