Emilija Gasic’s found footage feature takes place, as you might expect, over 78 Days.
The timeframe in question is the period during which NATO carried out a campaign of aerial bombing against the former Yugoslavia during the Kosovan War. It was a campaign that saw the deaths of several hundred civilians between 24 March and 10 June 1999. Those dates provide the entrance and exit points for Gasic’s unusual and deftly woven drama that is stitched together from snatches of fictional home video footage captured by a family who are both enduring the bombardment and trying to continue with their lives.
This is especially true of the film’s main characters – a trio of sisters: 17-year-old Sonja (Milica Gicic), 15-year-old Dragana (Tamara Gajovic), and 7-year-old Tijana (Viktorija Vasiljevic) known affectionately as Tica. It is these three who, alternating between them, are the in-film cinematographers of the action, from the opening scenes in which their father is conscripted, right through the duration of the campaign. More than being about surviving the frequent air raids, the narrative is a familiar tapestry of sororal squabbles, family milestones, and the first flushes of romance – all set against the pervasive risk that a siren will punctuate an otherwise routine interaction with the terrifying threat of bombs falling nearby.
The use of the home video mode that Gasic employs is an interesting decision that allows her to probe at sisterly dynamics and the unseen effects of the situation without having to consistently resort to overtly dramatic escalation. Instead, the film almost has the vibe of one set across a long hot summer, full of longueurs and fleeting glances, with tensions ebbing and flowing naturalistically and instances of direct conflict feeling as explosive as the sudden threat of a raid. For the three girls, the threat of the bombing campaign feels less immediate than it does for their terrified mother. They are more annoyed that their time hanging out with the cute boy who arrived next door, Mladen (Pavle Cemerikic), has been curtailed after his family, including his young sister Lela (Masa Cirovic), retreated from Belgrade to the relative safety of the countryside.
And so, the girls film themselves stealing fruit from a nearby neighbour’s cherry tree, a dance performance by Tica and Lela, or the local group of youths sitting around drinking beers in the evening. Sometimes they will just sit around drawing and reading, or gently needling one another as siblings do. While some of the raids are more dramatic in their presentation, Gasic eschews the conventions of horror genre found footage films and, typically, the camera is switched off when the sirens blare. Given that the footage is supposed to be filmed in-world, all the exchanges involve the innate awkwardness of people knowing they’re on camera, so the actors perform on two different levels. While this means that private moments are not recorded, instead we must fill in the blanks ourselves.
This is perhaps most interestingly possible by the fact that we are typically made aware of who is supposed to be holding the camera, so we can intuit their inner thoughts from what they have decided to point the lens at. In one sequence, Dragana is flirting with Mladen, and the steadfast attention of the camera held by Sonja conveys to us exactly how she feels about this possible development. Later, Tica picks up the camera and records Dragana quietly glowering in the corner while Mladen and Sonja dance with one another – until she realises that she’s being filmed. There are moments in which emotion comes forcefully to the surface, and the tension proves too much, but these are only occasional and instead such things must be discovered between the lines.
All of these nuances depend on strong performances and all three girls are excellent in this capacity. Both Gicic and Gajevic are fantastic in their unspoken rivalry for Mladen’s affection, showing a wonderful capacity for momentary lapses that allow their true feelings to shine through before the mask is reapplied. Despite the two of them being the primary camera-wielders and participants in what initially feels like the central narrative thrust, it is Vasiljevic as Tica who steals the show.
From the naturalism of her despondent opening scene in which Sonja cajoles out of her that she’s glum because her school friend told her she was ugly, through to how she emotionally responds to the older girls’ turmoil and – in particular – a final act plot development, she’s magnificent. In a film that is ultimately about sisterly love and relationships, it is in her personal story of growing up far too fast that 78 Days packs its most poignant punches.
Director, screenplay: Emilija Gasic
Cast: Viktorija Vasiljevic, Milica Gicic, Tamara Gajevic, Pavle Cemerikic, Masa Cirovic, Jelena Djokic, Goran Bogdan
Producers: Andrijana Sofranic Sucur, Milos Ivanovic
Cinematography: Ines Gowland
Editing: Jovana Filipovic
Sound: Dora Filipovic
Production design: Maja Duricic
Production company: Set Sail Films (Serbia)
Venue: International Film Festival Rotterdam (Bright Future)
In Serbian
82 minutes
