Snajka: diary of expectations
Date:
January 9, 2023
Snajka: diary of expectations
Snajka: diary of expectations
1st feature
Logline
SNAJKA: DIARY OF EXPECTATIONS is a observational documentary about a Croatian-Roma couple, Tea and Mirsad, their daughter Frida and their attempt at a life together, suspended between expectations from families in culturally irreconcilable backgrounds that do not accept diversities.
Synopsis
Mirsad, a Roma from Kosovo, and Tea, a Croat, to a general surprise and protests from their families, after only six months in a relationship, decide to get married. Mirsad comes from a traditional Ashkali family from Kosovo and Tea stems from a modern, urban family from a small town near Zagreb. Two completely different cultures with their traditions and long built expectations of what a spouse should be like met on an uncharted territory. Mirsad and Tea hence became ‘brides’ and started living lives full of attempts to convert, social unacceptance, and mutual questioning what is best for them. Regardless of the unconditional love and tolerance, their mutual expectations, deeply rooted in their background and culture, but also in a latent attempt at ‘somehow meeting the expectations from the environment’ slowly rise to the surface. Scenes of intimate conversations full of hidden messages and silence in the lack of better words take it in turns with open conflicts with their families in their efforts to be accepted. Will the situation finally calm down when Mirsad begins playing with a famous band in Zagreb, which might bring financial stability, and Tea agrees to a proper Roma wedding in Kosovo, with all the traditions not to embarrass Mirsad’s family? Just when Tea finally found a compromise for Mirsad’s family’s wishes, and he started to make money by playing in a few bands, their daughter Frida was born. ‘The happiness their searched for’ and believed would finally reconcile two cultures brought a new set of cultural pressures and rules about bringing up a female child. Grandparents found a new focus of interest. But a much bigger challenge is not the family, but the social climate in Croatia and Kosovo. In both countries, the Roma are second-grade citizens and Frida is a child who is neither a Croat nor a Roma. She equally belongs to everyone. Or no one.
Director’s Profile
Tea Vidović was born 1986 in Zagreb. She graduated with a BA in sociology in 2009 and an MA in 2011 from the Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Between 2005 and 2007 she was a contributor for the local newspaper Zaprešički špigl, covering Zaprešić’s cultural scene. In 2009/2010 she spent a year in a student exchange programme at the University of Erfurt, Department of Communication Sciences where in association with the Stairs (Stube) Collective co-organised a photographic-visual-music exhibition What Is Balkan? – Balkan Bude, aiming to raise awareness in the local community about the presence of migrants. In 2011 she enrolled in the informal training programme Peace Studies in Zagreb, and in the practical part collaborated on a research for the film We Wanted Workers, Instead We Got People by Đuro Gavran. In 2013 she took up Restart’s Documentary Film School and started to develop ideas for her first documentary film. Since 2012 she is employed at the Centre for Peace Studies, working on migrant issues and their integration in immigrant communities. Snajka is her documentary debut.
Company Profile
RESTART is an organisation founded in 2007 in Zagreb, Croatia, focused on production, education, distribution and exhibition of mainly creative documentary films. Restart have produced more than 40 feature and short documentary and experimental films screened at more than 350 international festivals where they received more than 130 awards. Among other films, internationaly most recognised titles are ‘Museum of the Revolution’, ‘Srbenka’, ‘Days of Madness’, ‘My Life Without Air’, ‘All Still Orbit’, ‘Gangster of Love’, ‘The Blockade’… screened at IFF Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary FF, Locarno Festival, IDFA, Sarajevo FF, Hot Docs, DOK Leipzig, Mar del Plata FF, Zurich FF…
Through Restart Label, our distribution department we have so far distributed more than 120 feature documentaries on the territory of ex-Yugoslavia in all available outlets. In 2009, we founded Dokukino, cinema specialized in documentaries and since 2011, we have been organizing a six-month long School of Documentary Film along with other educational programs. Since 2012, Restart is co-organizing the Liburnia Film Festival, festival of Croatian documentaries.