His documentaries receive standing ovations at screenings. His style is authentic, recognized both by critics and the audience. He is the winner of several domestic and foreign awards, and for the film Simple it was also nominated for Best European Documentary Film at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival. In this documentary, the protagonist is the grandson of a Nazi camp commander, who is faced with a difficult family legacy. In addition to this, his emblematic films are i To the board (a story about a man who experienced public and judicial stigmatization for pedophilia, which was not the case), The Sandzak process (in which he discusses the torture of Bosniaks from Sandzak during the Yugoslav wars) and, recently premiered, Mamula All Inclusive (in which he monitored the transitional transformation of the former concentration camp in Boka - into a monumental hotel complex). We will probably have the opportunity to watch his documentary vision of the Novi Sad raid, a film he has been working on for a long time.
His name is Aleksandar Reljić, he is a long-time journalist and a former member of the Novi Sad band Generacija without future. Even though it's not good manners, I'm in "you" with the person I'm talking to because we've known each other for a long time and it would be a bit silly to tease each other. He was born in 1974 in Belgrade, lived in Kotor, and arrived in Novi Sad as a child. Last week, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina screened a cycle of films by Aleksandar Reljić, which was accompanied by a conversation with the author.
They say that you are obsessively attached to certain topics and ideas, and that you are ready to spend a lot of energy and time in order to film and present them. Can we identify you as the author? "triggers", attracts, it keeps you under adrenaline until it turns into a movie with the now famous, attractive style?
When I look back and try to analyze which topics attracted and drew me in, I would say that they are primarily stories that no one will tell. I am especially taken by those that others fear. For example, a film about Srdjan Švelja. I noticed that people were afraid to talk about the case in any way, because a horrible media and moral panic was produced, which almost everyone shied away from. When the word "pedophilia" is mentioned, people recoil. Many advised me to stay away from it because the matter is "very delicate". Since I knew the case well, it particularly irritated me and gave me the energy to persevere and say something about all this in film language.
That film talks about the injustice faced by many, as you say, witnessed and turned their heads. No, it seems that in fact every one of your films deals with injustice in some way. Is injustice that trigger?
Absolutely. In Švelja's case, I also considered it a great injustice that people who have the sensitivity to recognize injustice and who could even help a man who went through torture and stigmatization turned their heads away. To the movie The Sandzak process, which deals with the crimes against Bosniaks in Sandžak during the wars of the 1990s, I was drawn by the injustice because everything that happened was forgotten and deliberately covered up. It was as if everyone wanted to hide the gruesome stories, and even the international community, which did nothing to ensure that the crimes of the "Sjeverin" and "Strpc" type were properly prosecuted before the Hague Tribunal. No one was responsible for the fact that thousands and thousands of people went through police and judicial torture, which are the focus of my film.
Yes, injustice is something that definitely attracts me, it is the main motive of all my films. And the movie Rejected is a story about injustice. He talks about displaced Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians. They were expelled from Kosovo because of their (non-Albanian) ethnicity and because they were considered enemies. And then they came here to us, where again almost everyone considers them Albanians and, also, enemies.
Can it be said that the specificity of your films, and perhaps the secret of their success, the fact that you talk about big and difficult topics from the point of view and in the language of the so-called. an ordinary man, while looking for unusual interlocutors and unexpected angles?
I am also interested in the common man, he is always at the center of my film stories. At one time, I also entered journalism, believing that in this way I could fight against the great injustices that seemed to be happening to the little people around us. I am thinking, above all, of the wars in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, which were the closest to me both in terms of time and space, but I am generally interested in all wars and the injustices they bring. It is never the one who leads the wars who is threatened by them - but the little man. In this respect, wars are a metaphor for other crisis situations.
When an ordinary person is at the center of the film's story, you can much more easily evoke empathy in the viewer, and at the same time avoid pathos. Therefore, I am perhaps most interested in the phenomenon of a little man's fight for justice, who does not give up on it even if he is aware that he has no chance of winning.
Which documentary filmmakers would you like to be compared to??
My documentary-film expression came more from journalism than from film. I still see myself first and foremost as a journalist. So my main role models, the people from whom I learned the most, are journalists. The turning point in my life was working in the production "Urbans", at the end of the nineties, where I studied television journalism. By insisting on stories about little people, Marina Fratucan unwittingly introduced me to a film adventure that continues to this day. On the other hand, I was always attracted to Žilnik's approach to film.
You were a punk, played in the famous band Generation without Future, led a rather dynamic life. And then suddenly you got into journalism. You once said that journalism saved you in a way: if it wasn't for him, probably things would not go in a very good direction. Pa, what is it about journalism that is healing and so attractive?
Journalism helped me to channel the enormous frustration I felt about the society I live in and about - again those - injustices we were surrounded by. Punk was a reflection of rebellion, and then I realized that maybe that rebellion could be expressed more effectively through journalism. At the beginning of all this I was not fully aware of all this, but now it seems to me that it was - that. Journalism healed me, before that I was just banging my head into a dead corner.
Perhaps the secret of the success of your films lies in the fact that you somehow combined punk in them, punk experiences, the art of rebellion and professional journalism?
I wish it were so. I would like my personal touch in movies to be a combination of punk and journalism. But, I have to say, I'm still learning and I'm more and more interested in film language. And I am more and more devoted to him. I hope that the viewers will be able to notice this in the following films.
It would be rude to say the least not to mention the fantastic people with whom I have been collaborating for a long time, who also give the films a personal and professional, perhaps punkish touch. Mihajlo Obrenov composes music for them, there is a long-term collaboration with Goran Velemir and Zlatko Zlatković, Ivana Pejak, a great editor, and other important people have recently joined us. They are fully involved in what we do, ideas are exchanged, some of them literally managed to turn the course of the film with their ideas and observations.
How are the finances?, how do you find money for your projects?
Of course, certain topics have a problem with funding. Perhaps, however, that is also my prejudice, perhaps with every project I should knock on the door of the Film Center of Serbia. Because, I have to say that this institution is a serious partner of my films, that it is open and that my projects pass in its competitions and are even rated excellent. From the beginning until today, one of our biggest partners is - Al Jazeera Balkans. This television, especially when it comes to the production of documentary films, has a role that should be played by public media services, but unfortunately they do not have them, more or less in the entire region. If luck would have it, public media services would be co-producers of a large number of quality documentaries produced in these areas. And such a good offer would be even better.
What are you currently working on?, what to look forward to?
I am currently working on a film about the Novi Sad raid, which will be called A memory from Novi Sad. I have been working on it for more than two years. At the same time, I am shooting a short film Marathon runner. There are two other projects that I wouldn't talk about for now because they haven't been finalized yet.
You have won many awards, praises are pouring in from all sides. Do you want to single something out??
Recently, I was a guest at the private school "Tvrđava", which is located in Podgrađe and is run by my friend from kindergarten. We agreed for a long time that I should come to their house as a guest, to show the film to the students Simple we also talk to them about the film. Those children had previously seen the film Hitler's children by Israeli director Hanoch Zevi, who deals with a similar theme and has the same protagonist. The kids told me something incredible after the screening - that my film is much better than Zevi's because it also has a positive note in it. In all the darkness of the greatest crime in the history of mankind, the industrial destruction of human life, they found a glimmer of light. Simple they liked it because it was cathartic and hopeful. That's one of the biggest compliments I've ever received. Not because of the comparison with Zevi's film, of course, but because of that hope. They actually judged my work better than some others including myself. After talking with them, I realized that in every film I tried to offer a little light in the darkness.
