Croatia

THE MELON ROUTE

CREDITS

35mm - color  90’

Direction: Branko Schmidt
Screenplay: Branko Schmidt, Ognjen Sviličić based on the idea of Ivo Gregurević
Photography: Vjekoslav Vrdoljak
Editing: Vesna Lažeta, Hrvoje Mršić
Art Director: Mladen Ožbolt
Costume designer: Željka Franulović
Original Music: Miroslav Škoro
Sound: Mladen Pervan, Ranko Pauković
Cast: Krešimir Mikić, Sun Mei, Armin Omerović, Leon Lučev, Emir Hadžihafizbegović, Ivo Gregurević.
Producer: Stanislav Babić
Production: Telefilm, HRT
World sales: Insomnia World Sales, 50 bis rue de la Mare, 75020 Paris - FRANCE, Tel : +33(0)1 4358 0804 / Fax : +33(0)1 4358 0932, email: contact@insomnia-sales.com

SYNOPSIS

For the local mafia, Mirko smuggles people over the river Sava, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian border, to the West. His overloaded boat capsizes, and the smuggled Chinese people in it drown. Only a young Chinese woman survives, and Mirko decides to hide her. Under her influence, Mirko experiences a change in life. But the Chinese woman is a witness and the mafia kidnaps her with the help of the head of the local police, who is Mirko's uncle...

THE DIRECTOR: BRANKO SCHMIDT

Branko Schmidt was born in Osijek, in 1957. After a short-term attendance of Economic College, he graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb, film and television directing. His graduation thesis was a noticeable TV play Rano sazrijevanje Marka Kovača (1981). The next year he did a drama for television - Hildegard - which was declared – the best TV drama on the Yugoslavian state area. In 1988 he directed his first feature-length film Sokol ga nije volio – following the play by Filip Šovagović, and won The debutant of the year award at the Pula Film Festival. In the course of his career he has done a lot of plays, documentary films and also TV series for children – Operacija Barbarossa ( 1989) – following the novel of Ivan Kušan. In the Nineties he directed 4 more feature-length films: Đuka Begović (1991), Vukovar se vraća kući (1994), i Božić u Beču (1997) for which he was awarded with the Golden Arena for typescript. In 1999 he films Srce nije u modi. For his last film Kraljica noći (2001) he won The Golden Arena for typescript and production.
He was a member of the International film festival in Moscow in 2004.
2006– Put Lubenica – The Melon Route.

DIRECTOR'S NOTES

The melon route is a story inspired by a true story. The main characters cannot communicate, in my opinion, the greatest challenge in this film is to present this exceptionally rich and refined relationship between Mirko (the ex-soldier) and the Chinese woman in pictures and not words. In view of this, I believe special attention will need to be paid to working with the actors and shooting the scenes, so that their mimes and gestures are accentuated. In the outdoor scenes I would use a mobile camera extensively, in order to suggest that the protagonists are constantly under surveillance, and to accentuate the feeling of insecurity experienced.
I would shoot the film in winter when the vegetation is dormant.
Colour would be reduced; photography would be almost black and white.
One of my aims, perhaps my main aim, is to show the damning effect on a man caused by a fact that he simply cannot change: his place of birth!

FILMOGRAPHY

2006 The Melon Route
2001 Kraljica noći
1999 Srce nije u modi
1997 i Božić u Beču
1994 Vukovar se vraća kući
1991 Đuka Begović
1989 Operacija Barbarossa, tv
1988 Sokol ga nije volio
1982 Hildegard, tv
1981 Rano sazrijevanje Marka Kovača, tv

SELECTED FESTIVAL AND AWARDS

Pula 2006: "Oktavijan" –Best Domestic Film in 2006, "Zlatna arena" for the best male performance (Krešimir Mikić), for the best art direction, for the best sound mixing.
Montpellier International Film Festival: Grand prix "Golden Antigone" for the best film music (to the composer Miroslav Škoro)
Dubrovnik Film Festival: Grand Prix