#89. Faruk Loncarevic’s Berina’s Chakras
Gist: A Sarajevo-set coming of ager, or rather, a self-declared “true” (as in ‘genuine’) coming-of-age story, in that it looks at the moment when we realize that we will cease to be someone’s child. Between Berina, who is 21, and her dying mother Jasna, a new, powerful hatred is born. Berina is a painter, and slowly the symbols go from her paintings into her life; people disappear, and only ghosts and signs of it and those that weren’t there remain.
Prediction: Bosnian director Faruk Lončarević (of the 2006, 65-minute feature Mum and Dad) started principal photography on this second feature last November, which is about as late as a film can begin shooting if it is to be considered a Cannes possibility. Selected way back in the 2009 CineMart crop at Rotterdam, this is a project that percolated for quite a while before cameras started rolling, likely attributable to funding shortages. While his debut premiered at the Sarajevo Film Festival (an August festival) – which might suggest a venue for this film – we imagine Loncarevic is looking for a more Big League fest for this one. Not to mention, Berina stars Marija Pikić, who was featured in last year’s Un Certain Regard title Children of Sarajevo by Aida Begić, while Oleg Mutu, the DP for both of Cristian Mungiu’s Cannes competitors, did the lensing here. We smell Critics Week.
