“Motel Nana”, director Predrag Velinkovic’s new feature film, will premiere at Cinema City festival held from June 5/12th in Novi Sad. A melancholy journey through everyday life of postwar Bosnia reveals love and social drama of two people and also peculiar humor and spirit of this region. Heroes of this drama are Dragan Micanovic, Nikolina Djordjevic, Zijah Sokolovic, Nikola Pejakovic, Mladen Nelevic, Ljubivoje Tadic and Dragana Nenadic. The film will be screened within National class competition selection and will be competing in category for best domestic feature. “Motel Nana” came into being during director’s travels through Bosnia, while observing through windows of cars or busses, visible - architectural, and invisible, human ruins.
Lead hero in “Motel Nana”, Ivan, played by our splendid actor Dragan Micanovic, works as a high school history professor. When, provoked by a pupil, he responds with a slap, his life takes a turn for the worse. In changed Serbia, going through transition, where sincere emotional burst is harshly punishable, Ivan has no longer his place inside the school. At council session he is suspended and transferred to a school in a destroyed mountain village in Bosnia. On his way to Bosnia he meets Jasmina who is returning from Germany at her friend Hazim’s invitation, who owns a motel. Ivan’s love with Jasmina, whom Hazim actually wants to marry, and yet another slap in school, bring Jasmina and Ivan together in their shared escape from reality. Will his stay in Bosnia, at school with only eight pupils of different ages and nationalities, in rural environment where a slap is a disciplinary measure, help Ivan comprehend life a bit better?
According to director, film is trying to depict the melancholy of this region and to enliven its humor and spirit and to show how sometimes life in the country can be even more interesting than life in a big city.
Director Predrag Velinovic is a professor at Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade and a visiting professor at the Art Academy in Banja Luka. “Motel Nana” is his third feature film, after “Shadows of Memories” from 2000 and “I Think the World of You” from 2003.
Film’s excellent acting crew consists of Dragan Micanovic, Nikolina Djordjevic, Zijah Sokolovic, Nikola Pejakovic, Mladen Nelevic, Ljubivoje Tadic and Dragana Nenadic. Screenwriter Ranko Bozic previously worked on “An Additional Soul”, TV show “Storks Will Return” and Kusturica’s “Life is a Miracle”. Director of photography is Milorad Glusica who worked on "How I Was Systematically Destroyed by an Idiot" and “Promise Me This” as well as on TV show “Better Life”. Art director is Dragana Macan, costum design is done by Suzana Gligorijevic, editing by Vladimir Radovanovic, sound design by Milos Drobnjakovic. The film was co-produced by “VizArt” from Banja Luka and “Sirius production” from Belgrade.
