Film Archive

Woman With a Broken Nose

East of the West - Competition 2010 / Žena sa slomljenim nosem / Serbia, Germany 2010

Serbian director Srdjan Koljević, in his second film, offers a gentle mosaic of the lives of several lost souls who have to overcome the emotional traumas of their past in order to put their ruined lives back together. Their destinies, however, are linked by a tragic event.

Synopsis

The desperate act of a woman with a broken nose, who suddenly jumps out of a taxi and throws herself off Branko’s Bridge in Belgrade, connects the lives of three people who witness the event: the surly taxi-driver Gavrilo who tries to avoid any kind of emotional commitment, the depressed school teacher Anica, stubbornly rejecting the attentions of one of her students, and the wacky pharmacist Biljana, who’s just realised that the man she’s about to marry isn’t The One. Each of them bears a wound from the past, a trauma they haven’t yet found the courage to face. And it’s here on the bridge, linking the old city with New Belgrade, that their road to recovery begins. "I wanted to make a film which gives off positive energy without shifting its gaze from the real world. A film about the positive energy of love, even unattainable love....” This, the second film from Serbian director Srdjan Koljević is gently optimistic in its philosophy, yet remains credible throughout, deeply rooted in the reality and problems of its country and human nature.

About the film

104 min / Color, 35 mm
International premiere
Director Srdjan Koljević / Screenplay Srdjan Koljević / Dir. of Photography Goran Volarević / Music Mario Schneider / Editor Marko Glušac / Producer Jelena Mitrović, Srdan Golubović, Alexander Ris / Production Film House Baš Čelik / Cast Nebojša Glogovac, Anica Dobra, Nada Šargin, Branka Katić, Vuk Kostić, Jasna Žalica / Contact Film House Baš Čelik, Aktis Film International GmbH

About the director

Srdjan Koljević (b. 1966, Sarajevo) studied scriptwriting and drama theory at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, where he now teaches screenwriting himself. He wrote or collaborated on the scripts for a number of feature films, including Say Why You Left Me (Kaži zašto me ostavi, 1993), Premeditated Murder (Ubistvo s predumišljajem, 1996), The Hornet (Strsljen, 1998), Sky Hook (Nebeska udica, 2000), Normal People (Normalni ljudi, 2001), Natasha (2001), The Trap (Klopka - KVIFF 2007) and Love and Other Crimes (Ljubav i drugi zlocini -KVIFF 2008). In 2004 he debuted as a director with the comic road-movie set in the early days of the war in Yugoslavia, Red Coloured Grey Truck (Sivi kamion crvene boje), which won awards at various festivals. The Woman With a Broken Nose is his second feature as director.