Balkan Fund Workshop - "Mother of Asphalt"

The director and writer for "Mother of Asphalt" sitting with the panel
The director and writer of "Mother of Asphalt"
The opening of the Balkan Fund Workshop

Today at 10:30am Harrison and I went to the Agora building to attend the Balkan Fund Workshop. The Balkan Fund Workshop is where several scripts are presented to a panel of judges by their writer, producer, and director, and critiqued. A short clip is shown introducing the film and then the discussion session begins. On Monday, November 16^th, the award ceremony will be held during which the winning script will be chosen and given a cash prize to be used to further develop the script and begin filming.

Today we sat in on the workshop for the Croatian film “Mother of Asphalt,” which was written and directed by Dalibor Matanic, co-written by Tomislav Zajec, and produced by Ankica Juric Tilic. This film is the story of Mare, a young mother who decides to take her son and leave her abusive husband. The story portrays the obstacles Mare must overcome while living on the city streets with her son. The director said that his inspiration for this movie came from a newspaper article he read about a woman and her child who were thrown out of their home and survived by living in their car in city parking lots.

As the session began the panel expressed concerns about the melodramatic elements of the script. They told the creators of “Mother of Asphalt” that if their intentions were to show life as it really is, then they should make a documentary and not a film. Also much of their constructive criticism was about the development of the characters and the suggestion of making the young son Bruno the main character, rather than his mother Mare.

Sitting in on this workshop was fascinating. Neither Harrison, nor I, had ever experienced the behind the scenes creation of a script. I had never been aware of how much work it takes to develop a script, and the dynamic thought processes that go into creating the characters. Watching this discussion take place made me aware that screen writing is more than just creating the words an actor will say, but an intricate art of its own, in which a virtual world is developed and every minute detail is mentioned.