Anđelo Jurkas presented his film Till the End of Death in Pula. It is a film made up of 10 stories, with most showing love winning. It is based on a book, but the book still needs to be published. 90 percent of the stories are inspired by true events, Jurkas said. When asked if it is difficult to get such an impressive cast, he said that actors come to the film if they like the story, which is, fortunately, often the case. “Unfortunately, we filmed without a budget, but I think I have the privilege to work, be passionate and make my dreams come true, so I don’t give up, and we work in a feel-good mood,” Jurkas said. Coproducer Tena Razumović Žmara said it is difficult to create with a small or no budget, but that despite that the film had a great crew. “They worked with so much positive energy that everything had to turn out good in the end,” she said. Klara Mucci said it is great that Jurkas gives freedom to actors. “We were given the book and the theme, and we developed our own characters,” she explained. Kristina Jovanović met the director online, and says they hit it off right away and decided to work together. Lucija H. Kajić played her scene with Leon Lučev, and hopes they will work together again: “He is a wonderful partner, he is patient and we did many retakes, until it turned out the way we wanted it to,” she said, and added they cried when the filming wrapped up from all of the emotion. The youngest actors, Lu Marinac and Lav Rogers handled their first film brilliantly. Lu said she learned her lines and practiced until everything worked fine, and Lav already had some experience in acting, and hopes to continue acting in the future. Anđelo Jurkas already has six screenplays ready, and six more on the go, and says he will continue working in film despite financial obstacles.

The crew of Exorcism by Dalibor Matanić was also presented today. Matanić has excellent standing in South America, Brazil and Uruguay. “Personally, I feel very close to horror films, as I grew up watching them. The struggle of evil in this film is a strong message to today’s society,” Matanić said. Speaking about the difference between the play of the same name and the film, he said the film took a completely different direction. “We filmed in Istria, because there were reports of unexplained events here, and it’s precisely that which is unexplainable that is the creepiest,” he said. Janko Popović Volarić plays the priest, Viktor, and working on this film, he says, was not easy at all. “I spoke to a priest in order to get into character, I researched and read a lot about this topic. At one point I started dreaming about it all and I felt like the line between dreaming and reality got blurred,” he said at the press conference, adding that after eight-hour rehearsals it was difficult to leave the horror behind. “Your brain starts creating scary images on its own, and that’s the worst thing. All of the characters have a guilty conscience, and until all that is resolved, the exorcism can’t be performed,” said Popović Volarić. “I wasn’t the biggest fan of the theme, because this film was my first project after maternity leave, and I came back literally to hell,” said actress Helena Minić Matanić about her experience. She thinks the worst thing is that which can easily happen to all of us, that which we are afraid of the most: a nervous breakdown. “Dado made us watch a bunch of horrors to get in the spirit of things, and the documentaries were the worst,” she said, adding that they dealt more with politics, faith, and love than horror. “We all had to go deep into the dilemmas of our own characters and reach cleansing in the end. The role was tremendously physically demanding, and Dado is known for pushing actors over their own limits,” said Minić Matanić. Young actor Marko Braić started this project with a lot of enthusiasm and wanting to get completely into character, so he didn’t mind watching horror films that he normally doesn’t prefer. “I broke through all my fears and realised it is the price I have to pay for this role,” he said, adding that he now has no issues with watching horror films. In preparing for the filming, the director locked each of the actors into the basement of the theatre in Pula so they could face their own fears and prepare for the role. That encounter, the encounter with themselves, was the scariest thing of all, the actors agreed.