The film My Grandpa Is an Alien will close the Croatian competition of this year’s Pula Film Festival, and has had great success and has seen a lot of interest from the audience.
The film is directed by Marina Andree Škop and Dražen Žarković. As Marina Andree Škop said at the press conference, the film has been screened in cinemas and at festivals, and there is no place more beautiful than the Arena in Pula to wrap up its screening in Croatia.
Lana Hranjec is the lead actress, and she said that playing this role has been an especially wonderful experience as her acting partner was a robot, so it was a bit different from anything she has done before. She spoke about an accident she had while filming, when she fell from a tree: “They secured me with a rope, but I still managed to fall into a cold river. But, I changed my clothes and we continued with the filming”.
This was Tonka Kovačić’s first time playing the role of a villain, and she said working on this film was a nice experience. Lucija Šango is also happy with the character she plays, Lana, who is the start of the story as a whole.
Aleks Rakoš plays Aleks, Lana’s older brother. It was his tenth role in a film, but the first in a science-fiction film.
Sven Barac plays Lana’s other brother. It was his first film role, and he has been acting in theatre for five years.
Enea Kulenović Gudan, eight years old at the time, was the advisor for the youth film. “I read the screenplay and it was very interesting. If there was something I didn’t understand or I wished to change, I told the directors”, she said.
Pavlica Bajsić Brazzoduro was one of the screenwriters and said that in spite of a large number of co-producers they worked in great harmony. “Although this was a large step forward, as it is a science-fiction film, it is basically a story about diversity and friendship”, she said.
DOP Sven Pepeonik said that working on the film was demanding but successful, and that it is a result of a team effort of the entire crew. “In terms of the theme, we needed to anticipate what would happen during filming and prepare for all that was to come”, he said. “We have proven that we have the knowledge and the competences”, Pepeonik concluded.
Maja Gregl, Croatian Radiotelevion’s editor for the film, announced the coming TV premiere, and pointed out that it is a true little masterpiece.
Krsto Jaram was in charge of the demanding visual effects. “It was phenomenal. I had the task to bring Dodo to life - the half animated, half real character - it was the hardest to achieve. As he is present in as many as 350 shots, filming Dodo was very challenging”, he said.
Producer Darija Kulenović Gudan said that her work was cut out for her, but that it was a nice experience, and that the film has been screened at as many as 20 festivals. With the help of Croatian Film Association and the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), a reference manual for watching the film was published, and the schools have accepted it nicely.
It took ten years to get all of the co-producers for the film; and alongside Croatian producers from Studio Dim, these include co-producers from Luxembourg, Norway, Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
