‘Operation Sabre’ Creator Vladimir Tagic Talks His Feature Debut ‘Yugo Florida’ and How TV Filled ‘Gap Between Festival and Superhero Films’ in Europe
Following the success of TV series “Operation Sabre,” which premiered in Canneseries to acclaim last year and went on to win audiences across Europe, one of its creators is making another dream come true: Vladimir Tagić is set to premiere his feature film debut “Yugo Florida” in competition at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
The film follows Zoran (Andrija Kuzmanovic), a night-shift worker whose life revolves mostly around his job as a reality TV show editor guarding participants as they sleep, and the morose minutiae of sharing a shabby flat with an equally shabby middle-aged man who teaches English to Chinese students online. Things take an unexpected turn when Zoran’s emotionally unavailable dad is diagnosed with a terminal illness, with his son taking over his care. The cast also includes Nikola Pejakovic, Hana Selimovic, Snjezana Sinovcic Siskov, and Jana Milosavljevic.
Speaking with Variety ahead of Sarajevo, Tagić says he started working on the film before “Operation Sabre,” over seven years ago. “It’s much easier to finance TV shows than it is to finance a film, especially when you are working on a personal story that is not necessarily commercially interesting for a wider audience,” he adds. “We needed a few years to find co-production funds for the film.”
Asked what he thinks of the growing popularity of not only television in Europe generally but Eastern European TV shows, the director says there are two ways of looking at the current situation: “The first one is that TV shows are taking over and becoming more interesting for a wider audience, and movies are in trouble. Another way to look at it is to understand that movies were losing audiences even before TV series began to rise, as the idea of going to the cinema somehow stopped being relevant for people. The gap between festival films and Hollywood superhero films became wider, and that gap is now filled with TV.”
Still, even though he has built his career on television, Tagić believes film is “the most challenging and exciting form of expression.” “Making a movie is a dream come true,” he gushes. “I feel movies should exist, have to exist, and are still the most important art form in my life and, I believe, the life of many others.”
When it comes to “Yugo Florida,” Tagić says he first envisioned the film as a road movie, with two people stuck in the titular car having to iron out the complications of their relationship. Eventually, the film evolved from that format, with the director focusing on a portrayal of modern loneliness. “I wanted to make a movie that was more than just about the relationship between father and son. For me, this is a movie about loneliness, and if you want to approach that subject, you have to look at more than one aspect of your character’s life,” he says.
A key aspect in this sense was the insertion of Zoran’s job as a reality TV show editor, a job Tagić himself had over a decade ago. “I know so many people in Serbia who are working strange jobs,” he says. “You can have an American woman in Minnesota call the support line for an ATM and be speaking with my friend in Belgrade. My first idea was to have my character work that job, and then I remembered when I worked as a chief editor on ‘Big Brother.’ It was the most interesting job I’ve ever had, and one of those things when you’re searching for somebody else’s story, but I could tell my story instead. And then everything clicked.”
Once the structure of the film was finally in place, Tagić’s main challenge was casting. The director points out how Zoran is a “difficult character” to play. “He is a passive character; his problems are interior, and it is difficult not only to understand but to identify with these kinds of characters. I feared that audiences would find him boring and too melancholic, but I wrote the character, so I have to defend him.”
The director’s solution was to cast an actor who was the very opposite, reaching out to Kuzmanovic thanks to his immense popularity as a comedic actor in Serbia. “At first, he was confused,” Tagić recalls. “But even when I told him I wanted him to shave his head and lose some weight, he still wanted to do it. He was committed and had the most amazing transformation. He is unrecognizable, and I applaud him for that.”
As for how he is feeling ahead of the world premiere of his debut, Tagić says he is “a little scared” but “at peace.”
“Of course, you get nervous,” he points out. “You doubt yourself and start questioning your decisions, but at the end of all these questions and fears, there is only one thing, and that is my firm belief that I’ve made a truthful film. That is the most important thing to me. I didn’t make any compromises, I didn’t sugarcoat anything, I didn’t try to win audiences… I did as I felt I should, and I shall live with everything that comes with that decision.”
“Yugo Florida” is produced by Marija Stojanovic for Serbia’s Sense Production, in co-production with Bulgaria’s Contrast Films, France’s La Belle Affaire, Croatia’s Eclectica, and Montenegro’s Adriatic Western. The film was supported by Film Center Serbia, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), and the Bulgarian National Film Center.
The film follows Zoran (Andrija Kuzmanovic), a night-shift worker whose life revolves mostly around his job as a reality TV show editor guarding participants as they sleep, and the morose minutiae of sharing a shabby flat with an equally shabby middle-aged man who teaches English to Chinese students online. Things take an unexpected turn when Zoran’s emotionally unavailable dad is diagnosed with a terminal illness, with his son taking over his care. The cast also includes Nikola Pejakovic, Hana Selimovic, Snjezana Sinovcic Siskov, and Jana Milosavljevic.
Speaking with Variety ahead of Sarajevo, Tagić says he started working on the film before “Operation Sabre,” over seven years ago. “It’s much easier to finance TV shows than it is to finance a film, especially when you are working on a personal story that is not necessarily commercially interesting for a wider audience,” he adds. “We needed a few years to find co-production funds for the film.”
Asked what he thinks of the growing popularity of not only television in Europe generally but Eastern European TV shows, the director says there are two ways of looking at the current situation: “The first one is that TV shows are taking over and becoming more interesting for a wider audience, and movies are in trouble. Another way to look at it is to understand that movies were losing audiences even before TV series began to rise, as the idea of going to the cinema somehow stopped being relevant for people. The gap between festival films and Hollywood superhero films became wider, and that gap is now filled with TV.”
Still, even though he has built his career on television, Tagić believes film is “the most challenging and exciting form of expression.” “Making a movie is a dream come true,” he gushes. “I feel movies should exist, have to exist, and are still the most important art form in my life and, I believe, the life of many others.”
When it comes to “Yugo Florida,” Tagić says he first envisioned the film as a road movie, with two people stuck in the titular car having to iron out the complications of their relationship. Eventually, the film evolved from that format, with the director focusing on a portrayal of modern loneliness. “I wanted to make a movie that was more than just about the relationship between father and son. For me, this is a movie about loneliness, and if you want to approach that subject, you have to look at more than one aspect of your character’s life,” he says.
A key aspect in this sense was the insertion of Zoran’s job as a reality TV show editor, a job Tagić himself had over a decade ago. “I know so many people in Serbia who are working strange jobs,” he says. “You can have an American woman in Minnesota call the support line for an ATM and be speaking with my friend in Belgrade. My first idea was to have my character work that job, and then I remembered when I worked as a chief editor on ‘Big Brother.’ It was the most interesting job I’ve ever had, and one of those things when you’re searching for somebody else’s story, but I could tell my story instead. And then everything clicked.”
Once the structure of the film was finally in place, Tagić’s main challenge was casting. The director points out how Zoran is a “difficult character” to play. “He is a passive character; his problems are interior, and it is difficult not only to understand but to identify with these kinds of characters. I feared that audiences would find him boring and too melancholic, but I wrote the character, so I have to defend him.”
The director’s solution was to cast an actor who was the very opposite, reaching out to Kuzmanovic thanks to his immense popularity as a comedic actor in Serbia. “At first, he was confused,” Tagić recalls. “But even when I told him I wanted him to shave his head and lose some weight, he still wanted to do it. He was committed and had the most amazing transformation. He is unrecognizable, and I applaud him for that.”
As for how he is feeling ahead of the world premiere of his debut, Tagić says he is “a little scared” but “at peace.”
“Of course, you get nervous,” he points out. “You doubt yourself and start questioning your decisions, but at the end of all these questions and fears, there is only one thing, and that is my firm belief that I’ve made a truthful film. That is the most important thing to me. I didn’t make any compromises, I didn’t sugarcoat anything, I didn’t try to win audiences… I did as I felt I should, and I shall live with everything that comes with that decision.”
“Yugo Florida” is produced by Marija Stojanovic for Serbia’s Sense Production, in co-production with Bulgaria’s Contrast Films, France’s La Belle Affaire, Croatia’s Eclectica, and Montenegro’s Adriatic Western. The film was supported by Film Center Serbia, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), and the Bulgarian National Film Center.