Valerija

On the island where Sara Jurincic’s grandmother, Valerija, is buried, there is a tradition that women get to choose the image that will adorn their gravestone.

In her experimental documentary, named for her grandmother, Jurincic travels with her mother to the island to tend the grave and this ostensibly domestic act becomes the basis for a sideways portrait of female ancestry. Using the aforementioned likenesses as a central visual conceit, the film is both about the act of commemoration and about the potential impact that heritage can have on us. Having received its world premiere in the short film competition at Sheffield Doc/Fest a few months ago, the film competes in the documentary category at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival.

The film opens with close-ups of worn photographic representations of eyes; from the filmmaker’s deep history, her forbears observe her as she begins her voyage to their resting place. Jurincic captures this oceanic odyssey using a variety of disjointed compositions – the two women are glimpsed at a distance, via askance angles and reflections, or as silhouettes against the body of the ship. It initially feels like a curious decision but seems to take on resonance when compared to the repeated motif of portraiture that follows, creating a strange distinction between the ephemeral living visage and the petrified deceased one.

That delineation is emphasised in the film’s next section, in which the two women – still often captured in oblique, or segmented imagery – tend to Valerija’s grave. As an animated sequence progresses through several monochrome photographs of women within a gravestone embellishment, a millipede crawls innocuously across the stonework. It’s a clear, impish reminder of the peculiarity of these eternally frozen portraits and the indelicate reality of decomposition and becoming one again with the earth after burial. That said, how the act of returning to and maintaining this memorial allows for some form of generational exchange is keenly felt. As the film ends, with flickering projections of the women’s faces onto Jurincic’s own, Valerija seems to allow the audience a brief glimpse through a porous border into something uncanny but ultimately comforting.

Director, screenplay: Sara Jurincic
Cast: Lidija Fabulic-Jurincic
Producers: Vanja Jambrovic, Sara Jurincic
Cinematography: Ivan Slipcevic
Editing: Tomislav Stojanovic
Sound: Jens Christian Bo Johansen
Production: Studio Nomad, Restart Laboratory (Croatia)
Venue: Sarajevo Film Festival (Competition Programme – Documentary Film)
In Croatian
15 minutes