The screening of the short documentary film After the Party, directed by Stefan Tomić, which portrays the 70th winner of the NIN Literary Award, Stevo Grabovac, will be held on January 29 at 8:00 PM in the City Hall of the Banski Dvor.
As stated in the announcement by the Banski Dvor, the film will be shown on January 29, a symbolic date marking exactly two years since Grabovac was declared the winner of the prestigious literary award.
“The 29-minute film follows Stevo Grabovac, a retail worker, during the final ten days before the announcement of the award winner, for which he was nominated for the second time in his life,” the statement explains.
The film has so far been screened at three festivals and has won one award—the Special Jury Award at the 14th Balkan Nordic Film Festival, recently held in Stockholm—and is expected to participate in numerous film festivals throughout this year.
Its television premiere, broadcast on January 9 on Radio Television of Serbia, was watched by approximately 680,000 viewers.
“I have never done what I truly wanted to do. Mostly, I drifted where my friends drifted or where I was told I should go, until I decided to enroll in directing. I have always wanted to deal with stories, to create images, to write. That decision put me in a position where I constantly have to grow and learn, so that perhaps one day I might feel that I am good at something, even though I am deeply aware that I will probably never fully fulfill that desire. Perhaps the beauty lies precisely in the constant pursuit of something that is personally unattainable. Besides that, it is important to feel pride in yourself, but also to know that your parents are proud of you. There is nothing more beautiful than that,” said director Stefan Tomić.
When Stevo Grabovac becomes the winner of the NIN Award and writes from the heart and soul, Tomić adds, there is no praise that can match parental praise.
“I sometimes feel loneliness, or the need for it, and that is something that particularly draws me to his story. What also attracts me is the fact that he is truly ‘one of us.’ There is no façade between him, his creativity, and his work. In a way, this is a film about the meaninglessness of fame, but at the same time about the meaning of the inner need to create,” Tomić said.
Producer Nikola Đaković explained that the idea for a documentary film about Grabovac was born after he read Grabovac’s debut novel Mulatto Albino Mosquito (shortlisted for the NIN Award). After reading it, he became interested in Grabovac’s life and upbringing, tried to learn and read more about him, and eventually met him.
“Stevo is calm, composed, and withdrawn. In a crowd, few would notice him; he is not someone who stands out. Like his favorite author Michel Houellebecq, Stevo has no formal education in literature and is not a member of literary associations. He is a loner who, in moments of solitude, does what he knows best—he writes,” Đaković said.
That same Stevo, almost an outsider, with his second novel After the Party, the producer explains, won the jubilee 70th NIN Award for Novel of the Year and suddenly found himself in the spotlight.
“The public, which previously found him uninteresting because he did not ‘fit’ into television formats and because culture is not as ‘clickbait’ as entertainment and reality programs, suddenly began to focus on him—through praise, criticism, differing opinions, and debates. However, Stevo is not interested in that. He does not use social media and preserves the peace of the micro-world in which he lives, sharing trust and love with a handful of true friends,” Đaković explained.
Guided by the thought, he added, “If we don’t make a film about Stevo, who will?”, a film was created about a man who rose from his own bottom and reached the top.
“Alone, in a rented studio apartment, Stevo quietly and unobtrusively wrote his first, and then his second novel, eventually receiving the highest possible validation for what he creates and placing himself alongside names such as Miloš Crnjanski, Borislav Pekić, Danilo Kiš, Branko Ćopić, Meša Selimović, and Miroslav Krleža,” Đaković concluded.
In addition to Tomić and Đaković, the film crew includes Saša Savičić as director of photography and colorist, Danijel Deni Karalić as composer and sound recordist, Igor Suzić responsible for sound design and mixing, Miloš Lukić as co-producer, Aleksa Doveden as graphic designer, while the English translation was done by Đorđe Blažić.
The film was produced by the company Didaskalija, with the Official Gazette of the Republika Srpska as co-producer.
Free tickets for the screening can be collected at the Banski Dvor ticket office on weekdays from 12:00 to 6:00 PM.
Source: RTRS
