Tereza 37 , Croatia’s Oscar entry, is the story of a 37 years old Tereza that has been married for a very long time. She lives in Split, city on Croatia’s Adriatic coastline. After several miscarriages, her gynecologist, in attempt to cheer her up, jokes she should try to conceive with a different partner. This remark will shake up her monotonous life and make Tereza start questioning her marriage. She decides to steer things in a new direction.
To learn more about making of Tereza 37, we had an interview with Lana Barić , writer and lead actress of the film and its director Danilo Šerbedžija:
The film is set in Split, a beautiful Mediterranean city of contrasts and the second largest city in Croatia. The film is about a patriarchal society, unique, quite narrow- minded mentality, both conservative and traditional. It is a perfect stage for coloring that oppressing and inhibiting petty-bourgeois atmosphere. Although this story is set on the idyllic sea coast, the plot is free of all touristic stereotypes, as it all happens on muggy summer days in urban, mostly concrete surroundings.
The film emphasizes the issue of the suffocating environment, the issue of the individual freedom being squeezed into given frames and stepping out of these frames, creating a new and personal definition of one’s freedom.