They were many who doubted that Bosnian director Danis Tanovic could pull off An Episode In The Life Of An Iron Picker. The odds were stacked against him. Its budget was a paltry €17,000 (Dh86,000) and he decided to employ the real-life couple on whose story the film is based.
The drama recounts the harrowing ordeal of Senada Alimanovic and partner Nazif Mujic, a couple belonging to the minority Roma community in Bosnia-Herzegovina, who had no medical insurance or money when his wife suffered a miscarriage. They were denied medical assistance at local hospitals and what followed was a ten-day nightmare for a husband who is a scrap-metal forager.
“I read the article in a newspaper. I was there and wanted to do something about it. The thing is I would have to wait over a year for actors. But I didn’t want to do that. So I turned around and said, ‘how about you guys act what happened to you?’,” said Tanovic. His gamble paid off. Muji won the 2013 Berlin Silver Bear for best actor for his autobiographical portrayal.
“The guy who has never acted in his life beats the likes of Jude Law and Matt Damon. As a director, I try to think what is best for the film. Sometimes I have to do things that you are never comfortable with. That’s what makes you a good director,” said Tanovic, who has just wrapped up an Urdu feature starring Emraan Hashmi.
He spent seven months in India shooting the film which was originally intended to be in English. All we know is that it’s a tale about a Pakistani couple and that Tanovic chose to shoot the film in India as it was easier to secure filming permissions.
“But I decided to change the language from English to Urdu at the last minute. I thought, why would a Pakistani couple speak English between themselves at home? It just didn’t make sense, so I changed it. The producers were shocked but I said, watch me do it.”
But he makes it clear that there are no songs or dancing in his first Asian feature.
“I don’t care about Indian cinema. I go there to make my kind of cinema. I don’t want to make American, English or Indian cinema. I want to make my own thing. That’s me,” said Tanovic.
He’s nicknamed “godfather” on the sets since he gets his way most of the time. He’s best known for his 2001 Bosnian war movie No Man’s Land, which won him the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
“I was risking my life to shoot that film. So you learn to appreciate filming in different kinds of ways. Being a director is not a profession, it’s a way of life. I travel around the world looking for stories. There are so many stories to be told in the Middle East too.” Prod him more: “I can’t tell you if that story [about the Middle East] is a good story or not. That’s like asking why you love your wife. There’s no winning answer.”
*You can see the last ADFF screening of An Episode In The Life Of An Iron Picker on October 27 at 3.45pm, Vox 6, Marina Mall.
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