Family Atmosphere at Press Conference for How I Learned To Fly Ahead of the Croatian Premiere Tonight at the Arena

Family Atmosphere at Press Conference for How I Learned To Fly Ahead of the Croatian Premiere Tonight at the Arena

The press screening of the film How I Learned To Fly, directed by Radivoje Andrić, started the third day of the 69th Pula Film Festival.

The film is a heartwarming family story about twelve-year-old Sofija dreams about a camping trip with her friends, and her first kiss. But she’s forced to spend her summer in a worn-down family house on the island of Hvar with her overbearing grandma Marija and her quirky great-aunt Luce. With no friends or wifi, Sofia’s life on Hvar is hell, but her boredom is undercut by grandma Marija’s peculiar behaviour. Sofjia suspects some kind of secret romance is at play, but a closer investigation of grandma’s love life ultimately unearths a long kept family secret. Sofia gets the summer of her dreams, fuelled with new friends, adventure and much more.

At the press conference held in the foyer of Valli Cinema, the large film crew represented the film to be presented at the Arena this evening: director Radivoje Andrić, producers Maja Popović and Milan Stojanović, co-producer Ankica Jurić Tilić, and actors Klara Hrvanović, Olga Odanović, Snježana Sinovčić Šiškov, Ema Kereta Rogi and Luka Bajto.

As moderator Boško Picula noted at the start of the press conference, it seems that director Andrić has made a step forward in his work with this heartwarming family story. Andrić admitted he found himself facing a bit of a challenge in making a film of pure emotion, without sarcasm; but with the support from the producers everything fell into place wonderfully during the long and comprehensive preparations for writing the screenplay and the casting. It was very important to the director to have an immediate spark and chemistry among the film crew, because there is no time for building and developing such family connections on set. The actors confirmed that it was indeed like that, and said that even in their free time they functioned as family, which translated into the film. The lead actress, young Klara Hrvanović said that the preparations were long and sometimes exhausting, but that it was all worth it in the end. She also said her experience working with her film grandmothers Olga Odanović and Snježana Sinovčić Šiškov was “the best experience ever”. Snježana Sinovčić Šiškov enjoyed playing the island nonna, who is in no way stereotypical, but also sharing the screen with Olga Odanović. Both actresses spoke about their great mutual respect and admiration, both professionally and personally. Olga Odanović emphasised she is happy and grateful to have been cast in this film, not only because the story is a part of her personal story, but also because this role allowed her to take a step back from her roles in comedies that she has gotten a bit tired of. Projects like this one, where everything somehow falls into place, both the story and the people, and the atmosphere, are rare, Olga Odanović said.

As this is also one of the films made during the pandemic, producer Maja Popović said the filming was challenging, but also that she was lucky in having a very professional film crew. More than 200 thousand people have seen the film in Serbia, but Milan Stojanović said it was not the only goal of this project, even though it is something to be happy about. We are happy that we have made a film that is equally communicative and artistically valuable, he said. The film will continue its festival life following Pula Film Festival, but the screening at the Arena was a childhood dream come true for producer Stojanović. He said working with co-producer Ankica Jurić Tilić was “a great miracle”, while she said that this was a passion projects of hers, and added that the trust she had built with producer Stojanović was valuable., and announced the island tour of the film she very much enjoyed being a part of.

The Croatian premiere of the film How I Learned To Fly will take place this evening at the Arena at 9.30.

The programmes, as well as the detailed schedule of screenings and any other information can be found on the official webpage of the Festival: www.pulafilmfestival.hr.