Based on a story and screenplay by Stefan Boëković, Bosnian helmer Srđan Vuletić's Otter ( Via ) tells the story of a 16-year-old girl named Hana, who has to face two major traumas, as well as the expectations of her mother and family. Vuletić's debut, Summer in the Valley of Gold also had a 16-year-old boy, a boy who must pay off his late father's debt. In his latest, Hana must deal with the death of her father, whose final wish was to be buried in a spacesuit. Matthew McConaughey has no role in the film, but is referenced in Otter (more on that later).
“A reserved teenager, Hana, is invited by her passion, Ferry, to go to a lake with him to film a solar eclipse. On the morning of their planned trip, Hana’s father, a top-flight driver, dies,” reads a synopsis for the film, which celebrated its world debut at the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival . “In his will, Hana’s father asks that he be buried in a spacesuit. Frustrated with her mother’s inability to face the rest of her family, who want to give her father a traditional funeral, Hana runs from home and goes to the lake.” She wants to have fun with a ferry and her friend and social media star Luka, only to be disappointed and experience violence. “Hana must suppress her attentive and obedient nature or her fate will be as dark as the solar eclipse.”
Vuletić has been busy after a 17-year hiatus. “Many people think I stopped making films, but I was essentially stuck with the production of one of my previous films,” he told Thr during an interview at the Sarajevo Film Festival. “It was that film, Academia , that I debuted last year. Remember that saying, ‘Don’t put all your eggs in one basket?’ And I made that mistake.”
He reacted by starting to develop many things at the same time, "and it all materialized in about five years," Vuletić explained. "So, in the last four years, I've made two series as a creator and two feature films. But before that, it wasn't really a break. I did some theater work as a director and some documentary work. So, I was on vacation."
Srđan Vuletić
Courtesy of the Sarajevo Film Festival
What's the story behind the space costume? "This wasn't in the initial version of the script," said director Thr . "It came as a solution I asked the script to make. We had a movie about a girl facing trauma. And I told her that in some ways it's too linear for her to just have one trauma. I didn't want Hana to have a pause. So we brought this huge trauma inside the house."
A lead captured in a box also plays a key role in the film. “One thing I changed right before shooting was that I thought it might not be good to see the otter as an animal in physical presence,” Vuletić Thr . “The otter symbolizes her trauma.”
In a later scene, the otter can be seen, but only with enthusiasm. The director planned for this animated sequence from the beginning. "I wanted to make a film that was different from the rest of the regional cinema," Vuletić explained. In consultations with others, "this animation thing clicked," he recalled. "It's a moment when we enter his inner world. It's the moment when he finally understands that he shouldn't run away from his problems. It's a moment of change when he says, 'Okay, my first step in solving problems is to recognize that I have a problem and face it.'"
So, what does Matthew McConaughey have to do with Otter ? There’s a scene where Luka’s appearance is compared to the famous actor. But Vuletić says that another Hollywood star was initially planned to be named in that scene. “There was another actor we had in mind for this role of Luka, and this guy looks like Sean Penn,” the filmmaker told Thr . “And then, for a long time in the script, it was Sean Penn. So when we decided to have Pavle Marković, a great, great actor, play Luka, I said, ‘Listen, I don’t think it would fit his character to say a name that actually looks like him. Let’s say a name that he thinks he looks like.’” McConaughey.
