We interview Vanja Vascarac, creator of genre feature film project “Blok 62”
A Sitges Pitchbox Special Mention
We spoke to Croatian director and screenwriter Vanja Vascarac, who’s project “Blok 62” got selected as part of this year’s Sitges Pitchbox Special Mentions. The feature film project brings us the story of supernatural events happening during 1960s Yugoslavia, when a series of suicides start to occur in a new housing project. An investigator and a priest will try to get to the bottom of what seems a case of possession by the devil.
Brief synopsis:
Yugoslavia 1962: after a series of strange suicides in a newly built housing project, the Communist officials start an investigation. Lead investigator Ivan moves into the building incognito with his pregnant wife. While recording and listening to the conversations he starts doubting his sanity and suspecting a 12-year-old girl to be possessed by a demon. In need for help, he secretly teams up with a Catholic priest under war crimes investigation by his own UDBA agency (KGB-equivalent). The girl forces both of them to confront the dark secrets they hold from the times of the Second World War. Pressed by the Communist Party to solve the case, while trying to protect his wife and unborn child — exorcism becomes the only solution left.
FMH: Tell us a little bit about yourself, why did you decide to become a filmmaker? Where did you study? How did you start your career in film?
V.V: I was always fascinated with universe-building and storytelling. When I was a kid I wanted to be an architect. Then, for a while, a painter, a comic book artist…Soon, it all came together. Luckily enough, I got an opportunity to go study film in The United States (Savannah College of Art and Design). We were a very successful generation — my student film Insomniac was in Cannes Film Festival (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs), one of my peers won a Student Academy Award etc. Now, we’re starting to come out with our first features.
FMH: Do you have any other work in film, TV or advertisement? Can you show us/ tell us about your most noted work up until now?
V.V: Upon my return to Europe, I started directing music videos and commercials. This is where real life started. Clients, deadlines, pressure, sometimes dealing with low budgets, being resourceful, shooting run and gun. In the meantime I kept making shorts: Carver is Dead (15 min), Lora Wears Black (23 min, premieres this month!). I also did a feature documentary about electronic music that got a couple of awards. But, commercials taught me how to work smart and quick, how to compress the storytelling when I need to, how to explain something the fastest way I can, try different styles and genres.
FMH: Tell us about your project, “BLOK 62”, how did it come about?
V.V: I was lucky enough to witness two opposing systems during my formative years: socialism and capitalism — and a war in between. Also, I was always fascinated with history and again, architecture. I wanted to explore this 1960s Communist utopia with many buried secrets, but through a different angle.
FMH: I read through the dossier and script for “BLOK 62” and I loved the whole concept from the start. Mixing the context of Yugoslavia and a socialist- communist background, together with paranormal phenomenons is an interesting combination. What brought you to tell such a story?
V.V: First of all, there is very little genre cinema in Southeast Europe — and there is a lot of brutalist architecture. Sometimes, when we pitch we describe the project as “The Life of Others” meets “Carrie”. Blok 62 is a character-driven story about loss, memory, identity — and in the case of the little girl, coming of age. To simplify it, it is about demons of our past — both personal and collective. It is about these people who are captors, victims of historical circumstances and opposing radical ideologies — religion and communism, fascism and communism. Trying to solve the case of mysterious suicides, a Communist agent has to befriend a Catholic priest, soon finding out that the girl knows all of their WW2 secrets — and they must confront not only the girl’s powers, but themselves. I thought the only way to tell this story was from a genre-perspective, otherwise it would be pretty risky not to become too sentimental, “too much historical drama”! We need an extreme (genre) to tell this kind of story, to push these characters truly to their breaking point — in every way. These are universal themes, but with a very strong Eastern European flavor and identity. Sometimes I joke and say: If Tarkovsky directed a full-blown horror movie, this is how it would look like.
FMH: What is your ultimate goal with the creation of “BLOK 62”? In the sense of, what concept would you like audiences to stay with when they’d watch it?
V.V: The mood of haunting corridors of the concrete monster that Blok is…and the main characters — I think they make for some really interesting, layered and fucked up humans.
FMH: How long have you been working on this project?
V.V: 3 years! We pitched it at Black Nights in Tallinn, Estonia three years ago. We got a lot of amazing feedback from sales agents so we started working on it immediately.
FMH: At what stage are you with it at this moment? What do you need / are you looking for to further develop it?
V.V: BLOK 62 was awarded development funds from the Croatian-Audiovisual Center. We shot two scenes in Warszaw, Poland (EKRAN+), polished our script at Film Garage (Torino), pitched at Connecting Cottbus and won a special mention at Paris Digital Image Summit. Now we’re hoping to get production financing in Croatia as soon as possible, so we can move on to coproducing with several interested countries.
FMH: Do you have anybody specific in mind that you would like to be a part of your project (actor, actress, d.o.p, producer…)?
V.V: Two test scenes we shot in Poland was with Janko Popović Volarić and Leon Lučev, some of the finest actors in The Balkans. They’re committed to the project. I loved working in Poland and would love to coproduce with them.
FMH: What do you think stands out most in “BLOK 62”?
V.V: The Communist era visuals wrapped in a mysterious story about a girl with very special powers. The brutalist building itself that is like a maze. It’s 1960s but it feels different, otherworldly at times. The film has a very fresh appeal, almost exotic in The West.
FMH: Had you shopped it around before uploading it to Filmarket Hub? How did it go?
V.V: We had a lot of meetings with sales and potential partners already. The challenge is making a non-english film. But, I think it is the right way for this story. Also, there is a lot of resistance to “genre”, here in The Balkans. It is unusual to make genre films, although Eastern Europe has an amazing tradition of fantastic storytelling.
FMH: What made you apply to Sitges Pitchbox?
V.V: Sitges Film Festival is such a famous and integral part of the genre scene — we wanted this kind of exposure. Sitges in a way is “genre Cannes”.
FMH: Do you think, as a director/screenwriter, is it important to be involved in all parts of the process of making a feature film, not just writing it, but marketing it etc.?
V.V: It helps. You have to be aware of the market, as well as the times you live in. Even what we call “low budget” costs a lot of money, somebody’s got to pay for it. Not to mention that you want your film to be seen. With the ever-changing media landscape your work needs to stand out. There has never been so much content, but also so much “noise”.
FMH: Who are your favorite film directors?
V.V: This is the hardest question to answer ever! My favorite directors range from Andrey Tarkovsky, Bela Tarr to Dario Argento, Claire Denis and Noah Baumbach. Actually I have been watching a lot of indie cinema lately. Not to mention contempory art. When it comes to screenwriting — I guess it’s the blogs like Script Shadow. I can read it for days.
