Ivana the Terrible, the second feature film directed by
Ivana Mladenović, will have the world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival. The film was included in the “Cineasti del presente” section of the 72nd edition of the most important film festival in Switzerland, which will take place from August 7 to 17, 2019.
The section is dedicated to the film directors from all over the world, who are at their first, second or third film. Every year, approximately 15 feature films compete for the Pardo d’oro Cineasti del presente trophy, of 35,000 Swiss francs.
Ivana the Terrible is a non-conventional about people and places, about belonging and longing, said with humour and tenderness.
The Serbian actress Ivana works and lives in Romania, but after several health issues, she decides to spend her summer on the other side of the Sanube, in Kladovo, her native little town, surrounded by her family.
The mayor invites her to be the image of the most important local event – the music festival Friendship Bridge – and
though she is not very convinced, Ivana accepts it. After the arrival of her eccentric friends from Bucharest and as the gossip about her having a younger lover spreads around her town, Ivana arrives on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
The family and friends are invited to bring on the screen their own emotions and to play themselves in a film story about a woman who can`t find her place on neither side of the Danube.
The main part is played by Ivana Mladenović; the film features Luka Gramić, Ivana`s parents, Gordana Mladenović and Miodrag Mladenović, the brother Kosta Mladenović, the grandmother Zivka Sorejević, Andrei Dinescu and the late artist Anca Pop.
“The film is the result of a personal crisis I had in the summer of 2017 that made me go back home, by the Danube, on the Romanian-Serbian border”, the director said. “I started re-writing the events of that summer into a script. The film started
as an independent project in Kladovo, where real protagonists, family and friends – now as fictionalized characters – were invited to re-live the events and especially the emotions generated by them, in front of the camera. All “the actors” rehearsed for many months. A process that started as some sort of a therapy became a film. Sometimes, even if with personal histories, the drama repetition becomes a farce. In our case it turned into a comedy.” she added.
The film was written and directed by Ivana Mladenović, Adrian Schiop is the co-writer, the artistic direction is signed by Ana Szel and
Andrei Rus and the cinematography by Carmen Tofeni. the film was edited by Patricia Chelaru and
Cătălin Cristuțiu, the costumes were signed by Iulia Popescu, the production design was signed by Radmila Simić, Rada Dronjak and Gordana Mladenović, the make-up artists are Iulia Popescu and Dejana Petrucić. The producers are
Ada Solomon and Ivana Mladenović.
Ivana the Terrible is a microFILM România and Dunav 84 Serbia production, in association with the Romanian Television, nomada.solo, Verde Stop Arena, with the support of the Romanian National Centre and Film centre Serbia. With the financial support of Hollywood Multiplex and United Romanian Breweries Bereprod.
