Film Profile
PISMO TATI / A LETTER TO DAD
DOUBLE FEATURE
“Why did you want to die alone?” – With this question young Serbian filmmaker Srđjan Keča opens a documentary journey into his family’s past. Searching for reasons why his terminally ill father chose to die without saying goodbye to his wife and son, the director sifts through old photos and letters, watches family videos, talks to relatives and friends. Moving forward from the young man’s involvement in Party organizations to his engagement, marriage and subsequent parenthood, the film soon arrives at the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, a turning point in the life of the father and so many other people in the former Yugoslavia. Although we learn few details about his experiences as a volunteer in the Serbian army, the words of his former comrades, the expressions on their faces, convey something of the devastation those years wreaked on everybody involved. And the filmmaker’s questions begin to change, to focus on the issue of personal accountability in the tangled maze of history. “We always put the blame on war, but it’s human beings who make war, isn’t it?”
Serbia, Great Britain 2011
48 min, DigiBeta, colour
DIRECTOR
Srđan Keča
CAMERA
Srđan Keča
EDITOR
Katherine Lee
MUSIC
Alcyona Mick
PRODUCER
Srđan Keča
PRODUCTION
Srđan Keča
SRDAN KEČA
Born 1982 in Pančevo, Serbia.
After his studies in physics at the University of Belgrade, he finished his studies at the Parisian documentary film school Ateliers Varan in 2004 and then studied directing at the National Film and Television School in Britain. Together with other filmmakers he founded the Atelier Varan Belgrade and in 2005 he produced eight documentaries within the project “Srbija Verité”. His documentary MIRAGE already won several awards at international festivals.
FILMOGRAPHY (SELECTION)
2006 / POSLE RATA / AFTER THE WAR
2011 / MIRAGE
2011 / PISMO TATIi / A LETTER TO DAD