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A Wide Eye Films and Octagon Films Production Supported by Eurimages, Swedish Film Institute and the Macedonian Film Fund In co-production with Sektor Film, StellaNova Film and Film I Vast AB In association with WMG Film GmbH With the participation of Bord Scannán na hÉireann / the Irish Film Board AS IF I AM NOT THERE Written and Directed by Juanita Wilson Based upon the novel by Slavenka Drakulic For press enquiries please contact Nell Roddy. [email protected] or call 01 6185032 PRODUCTION NOTES SYNOPSIS As If I Am Not There is a story of a young woman from Sarajevo whose life is shattered the day a young soldier walks into her apartment and tells her to pack her things. Rounded up with the other women from the village and imprisoned in a warehouse in a remote region of Bosnia, she quickly learns the rules of camp life. The day she is picked out to ‘entertain’ the soldiers, the real nightmare begins. Stripped of everything she ever had and facing the constant threat of death, she struggles against all the hatred she sees around her. In a final act of courage or madness, she decides to make one last stand: to dare to be herself. And this simple act saves her life. It’s when she realises that surviving means more than staying alive that she has to make a decision that will change her life forever. As If I Am Not There is a modern war story that explores love, identity and the connections between us. ABOUT THE CAST ABOUT THE CAST NATASHA PETROVIC SAMIRA Natasha is a second year acting student and native of Skopje. As If I Am Not There is her first film. FEDJA STUKAN THE CAPTAIN Fedja is a native Bosnian TV and film actor. Among his film credits are Some Other Stories (2010), It's Hard to Be Nice (2007), Nafaka (2006) and Warchild (2006). ABOUT THE FILM MAKERS JUANITA WILSON WRITER / DIRECTOR Irish director, Juanita Wilson has just followed up her Oscar ® nominated first film, The Door (2008) with an equally hard hitting true story from the Bosnian War, As If I Am Not There, based on Croatian journalist Slavenka Drakulic’s book of the same name. The Door was shot on location in Pripyat and Kiev in the Ukraine and so far has received worldwide critical acclaim both for its cinematic imagery and its moving story. The Academy Award® nomination in March 2010 followed a string of awards throughout the world including Bilbao International Film Festival Golden Medal for Fiction; Irish Film and Television Academy Award for Best Short; Foyle Film Festival ’08 Best Irish Short; Cork Film Festival Clare Lynch Award for Best First Time Director; Warsaw’s Grand OFF International Film Festival’s Award for Best Direction and The Bird’s Eye Festival in London where it won Best Short. The Door was in the official selection at Munich, Edinburgh and Telluride Film Festivals 2009. At the Sarajevo Film Festival in August 2009, Stellan Skarsgard awarded Juanita the prestigious Katrin Cartlidge Foundation Bursary. Juanita jointly developed and produced two powerful, award winning feature films: H3 (2001) written by surviving Irish hunger striker Laurence McKeown about his experiences and Inside I’m Dancing (2004) about the quest for independent living by two Dublin men with disability. H3 won the Bergamo Film Festival Audience Award in 2002 and Inside I’m Dancing, starring James McEvoy, won the Edinburgh Festival Audience Award in 2004. In 2005 it was in the official Selection of the Sundance Film Festival and won the Irish Film and Television Audience Award for Best Film. Born in Dublin, Ireland, Juanita studied Fine Art in the National College of Art and Design and, after a year living and studying in Paris, she went back to achieve first place on the postgraduate Diploma in Arts Management in UCD. After a spell working in the independent production sector in Dublin, she went back to college and graduated with the top marks as a professional journalist at the Dublin Institute of Technology. Not afraid to take on strong subjects and, driven by a desire to discover what it means to be human, her work to date combines her love of image making with her desire to tell powerful stories about the resilience of the human spirit. JAMES FLYNN PRODUCER In July 1997, James along with Juanita Wilson established Metropolitan Film Productions Limited with the intention of making strong, independent and resonant films for the international market. In-house projects developed and produced by Metropolitan Films include Nora (2000) and H3 (2001). James Flynn formed a strategic alliance with Morgan O’Sullivan in August 1998 and through this partnership, they both provided Executive/Co-Production services to incoming productions. James and Juanita established Octagon Films in 2002 to develop and produce high quality films for the international market. Octagon developed and produced Inside I’m Dancing (2004) written by Jeffrey Caine (Goldeneye, The Constant Gardener) and directed by Damien O’Donnell (East Is East, Heartlands). Produced in conjunction with Working Title/Universal, it won the Audience Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and was released by Momentum Pictures in autumn ‘04. Among Octagon’s recent producing credits are The Door (2008) by Juanita Wilson, Neil Jordan’s Ondine (2009) starring Colin Farrell; Dorothy Mills (2008) by Agnes Merlet; Becoming Jane (2007); Brendan and the Secret of Kells (2009) and The Tudors (20072010) starring Jonathan Rhys-Myers. James is currently producing The Borgias in Hungary starring Jeremy Irons and being written and directed by Neil Jordan NATHALIE LICHTENTHAELER PRODUCER After graduating from university in Germany with a Masters Degree in Economics, Nathalie ditched a promising career in international marketing in the fashion industry and signed on as a Production Assistant on a film set. Nathalie's rise through the production ranks was swift. Having worked on approx. 14 feature films and TV movies, Nathalie made her move into producing. In 1995 she relocated to the US where she studied for a short time in New York before continuing her film studies in Los Angeles. In 1999, Nathalie located to Ireland where she established Wide Eye Films Ltd. Among her credits are the feature films Vasha (2008), The Front Line (2006) and Cowboys and Angels (2003). SLAVENKA DRAKULIC WRITER (NOVEL) Slavenka is a noted Croatian writer and journalist and author of the 1999 best seller As If I Am Not There (published in US as S: A Novel about the Balkans, 2000) on which the film is based. Born in Croatia, she graduated from the University in Zagreb in 1976. From 1982 to 1992 she was a staff writer for the Start bi-weekly newspaper and news weekly Danas (both in Zagreb), writing mainly on feminist issues. Drakulic published her first novel, Hologrami straha (Holograms of Fear) in 1988, and her essay collection How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed (1991) was her first book to be written and published in English. She began working as a journalist, acting as the Eastern European correspondent for Ms. magazine and as a contributor to Danas, a major Croatian political journal. Drakulic has written articles and reviews for publications such as The Guardian (for which she is a regular contributor) New Republic, The Nation, and Time magazine as well as European newspapers such as La Stampa, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Dagens Nyheter, and Politiken. She has so far written four novels – Holograms of Fear, Marble Skin, The Taste of a Man, As If I Am Not There – and four non-fiction books – Balkan Express, How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed, Café Europa and They Would Never Hurt a Fly – all of which have been translated into many languages. She was awarded a Fulbright award in 1990, the 1992 Independent Foreign Fiction Award for Holograms of Fear, and an award from the Institute of Human Sciences in Vienna in 1994. Drakulic lives in Stockholm, Sweden. TIM FLEMING CINEMATOGRAPHER A native of Galway, Ireland Tim has been named as one of Variety’s ‘10 Cinematographers To Watch 2008’. Tim was cinematographer on Juanita Wilson’s Academy Award® nominated short film The Door (2008) and also Cinematographer on the Oscar winning Irish feature, Once (2006). Other feature credits include The Last Furlong (2011), Small Engine Repair (2006), Cre ne Cille (2007) and the award winning short The Man Inside (2008). In 2009 he shot a number of flagship dramas for the BBC including Silent Witness, Moses Jones and Luther. NATHAN NUGENT FILM EDITOR Nathan has been editing features and documentaries for over ten years. He has recently cut Juanita Wilson's Oscar® nominated short film ‘The Door' (2008), and also her first feature 'As If I Am Not There' (2010). Other feature work includes the comedy 'Zonad' (2009), the dark comedy 'Sensation'(2010) , and the feature length documentary 'Waveriders' (2008) . Other award winning documentaries for television include political series 'Bertie', and 'Get Collins'. Nathan also recently completed a comedy series, 'Trivia', for Irish Television. KIRIL DZAJKOVSKI COMPOSER Native Macedonian Kiril began his musical journey in the early eighties by teaming up with award winning director Milcho Manchevski to form Bastion, one of the first electronic bands in Macedonia. He then went on to play with one of the most famous Macedonian bands 'Leb i Sol', recording two albums and touring extensively around the Balkans and Europe. In the nineties, Kiril moved to Australia and began experimenting by combining ethnic Macedonian music and electronic beats. This led to his first solo release, 'Synthetic Theatre', an EP received extremely well by Australian independent radio stations. In 2000, American label Tone Casualties released his album 'Homebound', which continued the concept of blending Macedonian ethnic instrumentation and electronica. It received excellent reviews around the world, including USA, Canada, UK, Spain and Japan. The single from the album, 'Primitive Science', included remixes by well known London producers and DJs: Bushwacka, Subsonic Legacy and Dreadzone. In addition to his work with electronic projects and his solo albums, Kiril writes music for film, television and theatre. Kiril wrote and produced the soundtrack music for Dust (2001), the long awaited second movie by Milcho Manchevski. Dust officially opened the 2001 Venice Film Festival. He then wrote the music for The Great Water (2004), a feature film directed by Ivo Trajkov which was the official Macedonian entry in the Best Foreign Language category at the 77th Academy Awards® . Kiril wrote and produced the soundtrack for Bal-Can-Can (2005), including the hit single Baba Zumbula. CAST (in order of appearance) Samira Natasha Petrovic Samira’s Sister Angela Stojanovska Samira’s Father Zoran Trajkovski Samira’s Mother Sofija Kunovska Village Neighbour Elpida Pakovska Village Neighbour’s Husband Ivo Stojanovski School Boy Filip Pesov School Girl Jana Mircevska Arresting Soldier Kristijan Svetiev Commander Miraj Grbic Jasmina Jelena Jovanova Threatening Soldier Blagoj Veselinov Nurse Sanja Buric Nurse’s Daughter Marija Milicevic First Rapist Nino Levi Second Rapist Igor Angleov Third Rapist Aleksandar Mikic Alisa Irina Apelgren Halida Zvezdana Angelovska Mirsada Nikolina Kujaca Amina Slagana Vujosevic Caretaker Jasna Diklic Sleeping Soldier Bojan Velevski Experienced Soldier Sasko Kocev Experienced Soldier Gjorgji Neskoski Bojan Nenad Mitevski The Captain Fedja Stukan New Woman Kristina Lelovac Doctor Stellan Skarsgärd Hospital Nurse Jana Stojanovska Samira’s Baby Andrej Bogoeski Singing Girl Anna Walsh Written – Directed by Juanita Wilson Produced by James Flynn, Nathalie Lichtenthaeler and Karen Richards Co-Producers Vladimir Anastasov Lena Rehnberg Tomas Eskilsson Director of Photography Tim Fleming Film Editor Nathan Nugent Production Designer Bujar Mucha Costume Designer Zaklina Krstevska Executive Producer Winfried Hammacher Music Composed By Kiril Dzajkovski Additional Music Brian Crosby Casting Directors Fatima Grahic, Nela Vitoshevic