The making of the international co-production begins

"Dobro ustimani mrtveci" (Well-Prepared Dead Bodies) by the director and writer Benjamin Filipoviæ started on the terrace of the block of apartments in the Dzidzikovci region in Sarajevo. The first scenes, where one of the protagonists of the film is preparing for his historical flight with a self-made plane, were filmed. The film is produced by the Slovenian production house Studio Maj from Ljubljana, and co-produced by A.S.A.P. Films from Paris, Sintra Film from Rome, Cinemark from Paris, Casablanca from Ljubljana and Flash Production from Sarajevo; it is a black comedy, in which four different stories and characters are intertwined, bound together by the common prologue and epilogue. The international team with the producer Dunja Klemenc and the co-producers Cedomir Kolar, Rosanna Seregni, Marc Baschet, Igor Pedicek and Semsudin Cengiæ is going to work on the film until the end of April on a number of locations in Sarajevo; in the first half of May the shooting is going to continue in the Viba Film facilities in Ljubljana. The film is supported by the European film fund Eurimages, and it is also financed by the Film Fund of the Republic of Slovenia, the Film Fund of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the RTV of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the French Fond Sud and the Hubert Bals Fond from Rotterdam. The story of the second feature film by Benjamin Filipoviæ begins at an unusual location - in the city morgue, where two employees, Risto and Safet, bet on the number of bodies, which would arrive to the morgue that day. So, one day Risto bets that there would be less then four, and Safet bets there would be more than four… This black comedy, which makes us laugh, also makes us think. The producer of the film is Dunja Klemenc and Studio Maj from Ljubljana (No Man's Land, Lily's Story, Shadows of Time). The co-producers of the film are Cedomir Kolar and the production house A.S.A.P. Films from Paris, which he formed together with Danis Tanoviæ, Rosanna Seregni and Sintra Film from Rome (the film Vodka Lemon by the director Hiner Saleema, which received the award for the best film at the Venice Film Festival in 2003), Marc Baschet and the French Cinemark, Igor Pedicek and Casablanca and Semsudin Æengiæ and Flash from Sarajevo. The cast is also made up of seasoned actors, among them Lazar Ristovski (Small World, Underground, Irena Micijeviæ Rodiæ (Small World), Miralem Zubceviæ, Tarik Filipoviæ, Uliks Fehmiu, Sasa Petroviæ, Boro Stjepanoviæ, Barbara Cerar, Brane Zavrsan, Nada Ðurevska, Admir Glamocak, Misa Martinoviæ, Semka Sokoloviæ, Zan Marolt, Tatjana Sojiæ, Haris Burina and many others. Many Slovenian filmmakers are working on the film, among others the director of photography Ven Jemersic (Mondo Bobo, Porno Film, Ode to the Poet), while the set designer is Dusko Milavec (No Man's Land, Lily's Story, Nel mio amore, Melita), who has also designed scenographies for TV Slovenia, TV Belgrade, RAI, ABC and BBC; Tina Subic Dodociæ is the makeup designer (No Man's Land, Vladimir, Pretty Villages Pretty Flames - the "Golden Mimosa" award for makeup, Urnebesna tragedija - the "Crystal Prism" award for makeup); the manager of the film is Frenk Celarc. Benjamin Filipoviæ wrote the screenplay together with Fedja Isoviæ from Sarajevo, the costumes designer is Jasna Hadzimehmedoviæ Bekriæ, while the sound designer is Dirk Bombey from Belgium, who also worked on Tanoviæ's short film 11'09''01, on the film Antonia by the director Marleen Goris, which received the Academy Award for best foreign film in 1996. The music is going to be composed by Dado Dzihan, known for the Top Lista nadrealista, Zabranjeno pusenje, the film Welcome to Sarajevo, the project Dzihan in Kamien and other music projects. Benjamin Filipoviæ is known to the public for his debut Holiday in Sarajevo, Top lista nadrealista and the cult film Mizaldo - the End of Theatre, which was very successful at the Berlinale in 1994 and was shown at many prestigious international film festivals. In the same year Filipoviæ had a guest appearance at the Berlin Grips Theatre with his performance Bosana, which was staged more than a hundred times at many theatres all over Germany. In the 1996 he was one of the founders of the TV station OBN, where he worked as an editor. In this time he also made the short film Super dobra ideja (A Superb Idea), which in the year 1997 received the Grand Prix Europe award for the best short film. Presently he is the president of the Filmmakers' Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina and works as a professor at the Academy of Drama Arts in Sarajevo and Tuzla. Additional information:
Vera Kovaceviæ, public relations
Studio 3S, d.o.o., Ljubljana, Slovenia
phone: 041 779 149
e-mail: vera@studio-3s.si