- Film about friendship and love, at a time and in life when impulses and changes are irresistible.
- After a year spent in the Netherlands, Jan (18) is back in Sarajevo, his hometown. At the airport in Sarajevo, he is greeted by his father and best friend Ali (19). Harris, Jan's father is angry because Ali is there, because he is constantly holding back and pushing Jan's story so that he would like to see him with a girlfriend or friend. Driving from the airport to the city in the car is tense. Jan and Ali correspond via Snapchat, exchange photos, messages that mostly contain some sexual and provocative pretensions. Harris has always told the story that he suspects that his son is homosexual and that he has no feelings for girls, but his Balkan mentality, stubbornness and traditionalism, to which he very much belongs, do not allow him to start this topic even as a joke. Jan is a classic teenager who is against the world, against everything that is asked of him. His good relationship with his mother keeps peace in the house and prevents the escalation of arguments between him and his father. On the first day after Jan returned home, their uncle, aunt, Jan's cousin and his girlfriend are visiting. While Jan's cousin and his girlfriend are holding hands, even at lunch, constantly kissing, hugging, pinching each other, Harris is constantly pulling the story of Jan and his love life, making strange faces, looking at Jan, making the situation more than uncomfortable. It's a new day. Jan and Ali constantly correspond via Snapchat, exchanging shirtless, underwear-only photos, commenting on each other's bodies, workouts, and sending flirtatious messages. On the SHORT FILM "JAN" same day, at Bijela Tabija, they met with the rest of the company, who, hiding from other people there, were drinking Sarajevo beer from cans. In a short conversation about how Jan was in Europe, the relationship between Jan and Ali is mentioned, which is interesting to everyone because it is on the verge of anyone thinking that the two are in a relationship. While Ali constantly provokes, not knowing that a real emotion is awakening in Jan, Jan begins to suffer emotionally, questioning himself and looking for answers to the multi-colored questions that arise for him. When he is alone in the room and when he exchanges photos with Ali, Jan feels good. But it still provokes. Although his father blames him for not being home and not spending time with his family, and blames him for his behavior and the fact that he is being paid for by a private college, Jan still decides to go to a house party organized by one of his best friends. While everyone is having a good time, drinking alcohol, getting drunk and dancing and absolutely not caring about any problems, Jan is having a hard time watching Ali try to have fun with one of the girls from the party, and then take her to the room. And while the other girl tries to reach out to Jan, he follows what Ali is doing and where he is going with a totally disinterested look. And the moment when Ali goes to the room with the girl, Jan bursts into the room like a madman, jokingly kisses Ali and completely turns his relationship with his best friend upside down. And while the fight continues in the kitchen, Jan without hesitation gets into Ali's face and kisses him again. But he immediately becomes aggressive and pushes him away, insulting Jan and hitting him. Running away from problems and fights, Jan walks crying through the streets of the city towards home, without any control, screaming and trying to call Ali, who doesn't answer. The next day is one of the hardest for Jan. He fully confesses to his mother Ella, who has always supported him in everything and indulged him. Ela uncontrollably starts to put pressure on Jan, who ends up leaving alone again, crying. Jan's return home escalates into a total fight with his father, who beats and insults him. Although Jan is helpless, motionless and cold-blooded, without tears or emotions, he dies inside himself, and tries to end his pain, one controls his emotions. The rejection of Jan by his best friend, then by his father, finally forces Jan to take the worst possible step - to take his own life. SHORT FILM "JAN"
Director's explanation "Jan" is a film about friendship and love, at a time and in life when impulses and changes are irresistible. I wrote the screenplay in an attempt to explore awakening, changes, the influence of the environment, social networks and a topic that, as much as it was once accepted, is still sometimes taboo. This film is needed not in order to explore the subject of the film, but in order to explore themselves, the environment and to face the backs, thoughts, results that we cannot or do not want to see, hear. This is a topic and a case where it transforms the seemingly no a destructible relationship, limits, boundaries and views are tested, which all your life were thought to be anything but what they actually are in the end. Living in a society that cannot accept differences, whatever they may be, I realized that fighting for others, empathy, and talking about what really is, can only help me to give me strength, that sometimes some of my own problems, which would possibly in the eyes of the "normal" it made me "crazy and sick" to say my thoughts, fears or ideas out loud. This is a film that searches for a place where there is no need to label urges and a film that challenges the recognition of love in all its forms. I set out to follow the protagonist who is trying to listen to his inner voice, afraid to make a mistake, to destroy what is most valuable to him - friendship, wondering if his desire is leading him in the wrong direction and if he will be rejected. At the root of the story are social networks, Western imperialism, which sometimes seems to us a logical sequence of events, and sometimes a sick influence and culture for which we are not ready. The root of the story is like a compass, a guide, a refuge, a way of learning, observing and believing. I believe that this kind of film, which one day I would like to work in a feature-length format, is needed by this society and this film industry, not because I think I will tell something that we all don't already know, but because I will tell something that I witnessed, watched society falling apart, people dying psychologically, families disappearing permanently.
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