Zdenka Gold, who led the project in its initial phase, is now coproducing on behalf of Spiritus Movens.Īntoneta Alamat Kusijanović gained international attention with her short fiction film Into the Blue, which premiered at the 2017 Berlinale, where it won the Special Mention in the Generation 14plus competition. Danijel Pek from Antitalent is the lead producer. The project is co-financed with an undisclosed amount by Sikelia Prods of Martin Scorsese and RT Features of Rodrigo Teixeira. Murina was granted 16,215 EUR by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre for project development in 2017 and 406,295 EUR for production in 2018. Gracija Filipović is the leading actress, and the cast includes Leon Lučev, Danica Ćurčić and Cliff Curtis. Murina focuses on a Croatian family, whose members travel to the island where they have to face the hidden violence that exists between them”, said Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović. “I’ll be rejoining forces with the same international crew that worked on my short film Into the Blue. Interview by Brigitte Barbier, translated from French by A.According to the Croatian Audiovisual Center, filming will last 39 days and will take place on locations near Koločep, Brač and the Kornati islands. Murina was inspired by Antoneta’s last short film, Into the Blue.
HL : The entire Croatian crew was extraordinary and had a lot of experience shooting underwater.
Therefore, we alternated between classical shooting (on a stand, on a traveling, or on an Easy-Rig) and shooting from a Ronin.
HL : We had to accentuate the storytelling in all the indoor scenes inside the home by finding a different way of shooting them for each scene. Only one location on land, the family home Other bridging shots were shot in studio, such as when the young girl goes through a stone tunnel, and a scene where she had to go through a "rock hole" under water, at night, which we also shot in a pool for safety reasons.īut we also shot a lot of scenes from a boat, or on a dinghy. We shot this scene in a pool, and then the moray was added in later in 3D. In one scene, the father of the young heroine is caught by a moray and an arrow, thrown by his daughter, strikes him in the chest (nightmare scene). HL : Murina, which is the Croatian word for moray, is an aquatic snake hunted with harpoons. To communicate with the crew, I could provide directions using underwater walkie-talkies. The night scenes underwater are lit with spots from outside the water on rocks, which I could adjust remotely, to recreate the effect of Julia’s flashlight. The underwater crew held the lights in hand or stood them up between rocks.įor some scenes, we had to cut the excess sunlight with large black fabric we put on top of the water’s surface. The lights were battery-powered LEDs, which could be adjusted to be cool or warm, and I added colored gels to compensate for or accentuate the natural tones. Underwater backgrounds are blue, cyan, and sometimes present a mix of colors because of walls or underwater vegetation that are brown, dark purple or orange. HL : Besides Zoran, we also had frogmen trained in underwater shooting, grip work and lighting. We identified the three areas we were expecting to shoot in : the underwater backgrounds (Dubrovnik), an area of deserted islands for the boat scenes (Kolocep), and Hvar for the house. Scouting was very precise, and we established a shooting script with the director, we planned the camera angles, the shot/countershots, the values of each shot… exactly as we would do on land…Įven though these scenes have no dialogue, our shooting script was crucial. I worked closely with Zoran Mikincic, our Croatian specialist of underwater shooting. This was very abstract for me at first, because I really had no experience shooting underwater. HL : The film was entirely shot in Croatia, and we spent a lot of time scouting locations underwater. Location scouting, shooting script, and precision are necessary for underwater backgrounds The land is the family home that the characters leave only to go on or under the water.įilming underwater was a new experience for me, as was filming the surface of the water from a boat. Hélène Louvart : Murina is set in two very different worlds : the water and the land. Things change when a family friend shows up, with whom Julija begins to feel an undeniable bond.įeaturing Gracija Filipovic, Leon Lucev, Danica Curcic, Cliff Curtis. On an island off of the coast of Croatia, teenaged Julija lives an isolated life under the oppressive domination of her father, alongside her young mother.