LOOK, STRANGER A FILM BY ARIELLE JAVITCH

1 there a witness to my suffering? Am I alone? I’ve always been drawn to this question and felt LOOK, STRANGER is a psychological drama about a it should be the emotional idea driving the woman as she struggles with grief, loss, her past, woman traveling home in a war-torn world. and a world seemingly absent of a god. I felt also that the question resonated with the desire of refugees all over the world to believe that somewhere, somehow, someone was bearing witness to their displacement. Do you see me?

My intention with this first film is to tell a story that narrates the physical drama of a displaced person. But I hope the film also offers a vision of something more enigmatic: some of the mystery and loneliness of spiritual longing.

Synopsis The landscape is an important main character in the film’s story, and it was the point of de- parture from which the rest of the visual design of the film was created. Searching for an evocative but geographically ambiguous setting, I scouted locations in the western United Set in the urban wastelands and desolate forests of an unidentified world at war, LOOK, States, northeastern Turkey, and the Republic of Georgia before finding the right combination STRANGER tells the story of a woman making a dangerous journey home from a refugee of beauty and desolation in the mountains and neglected urban towns of southwestern Ser- camp. When her guide is killed on the road in an arbitrary act of violence, the woman is forced bia. I wanted to suggest something bitter and melancholic in the contrast between the film’s to rely on an angry and disillusioned carrier, who agrees to travel with her for a price. On her beautiful natural world and the ugliness of the film’s manmade ruins, abandoned buildings, journey, the woman is forced to struggle with the realities of war and a mind damaged and and scattered trash. haunted by the past. Longing to believe in something hopeful, the woman forges a fragile bond with the carrier. Their fleeting connection remedies some of the spiritual loneliness of Working with very little, Nevena Mijuskovic, the production designer, was extremely resourceful at life on the road. creating a cohesive environment that for the most part defies time, place, and language. COME AND SEE, STALKER, and THE LAST BATTLE were a few of the cinematic influences we dis- cussed when designing the look and feel of the film’s exteriors. We also strove to create a sense of claustrophobia in the film’s interiors, and worked with the rule that no prop should be in the film Director’s Statement that couldn’t be found at a trash dump or carried over a long period and distance.

Michael Simmonds, the cinematographer, (CHOP SHOP, GOODBYE SOLO) was, along with In 2004, when I began writing the script for LOOK, STRANGER, I envisioned a spare, visual the lead cast, my most important creative collaborator, and he and I prepped the look of the story about a displaced woman trying to get home through an extraordinarily hostile environ- film extensively. We worked with two central visual ideas: First, a dangerous world that’s ment. I foresaw the emotional core of my story being about the connections the woman made difficult to see clearly and that’s in continual conflict with the characters moving through it. with different characters along the way and how she was transformed and enlightened by her Secondly, a world that is experienced only with available light, firelight, and fluorescent camp- journey. The film would be a testament to hope in a dark world. ing light. These two ideas contribute to the film’s tension and to its realism. To balance this, Simmonds used vintage Cooke lenses that give the film a soft, dream-like quality, and that But films have a mysterious personality all of their own that pushes them into being the sto- allow us to sense some of the woman’s inner, psychological world. ries they long to be. By the time I finished filming and editing, the film’s story had become a tragedy. The damage from the war was so deeply wound into the woman’s existence that As soon as I met the actress Anamaria Marinca (4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, 2 DAYS), I knew she was no longer capable of connecting emotionally with others. Her journey had not only she was the right person to play the protagonist of the film. Her combination of intelligence, brought her home to a shell of a house, it had brought her home to a spiritual shell. Is there strength, and moral vigor, both as a person and as an artist, would make this character com- hope in a dark world? plex, inspiring, irritating, moving, and believable.

“Who’s there?” is the first question in Shakespeare’s , and to me, one of the most The man in my story was much more challenging to cast. I wanted to portray a male character mysterious questions in Western literature. It suggests so much more: Why are we here? Is not typically represented in the war film genre: a man who doesn’t belong in a war environ-

2 3 ment at all, who finds himself severed from civil society and at a loss for an identity in a world of male brutality. When I met Tom Burke, I was moved by the sensitivity and inner conflict he was able to project. Within the story, his character’s vulnerability is a complicated contrast to the female character’s toughness.

Last but not least: the child. During an extensive casting process in which I met boys from all different nationalities and backgrounds, I became more and more convinced that the child should be played by a gypsy. In the film, the child character may be a real child being remem- bered, a ghost, a spiritual witness, or the woman’s alter ego. I felt this ambiguity fit well with the mystery and itinerant history of gypsies. When I met with a group of thirty local gypsy boys near our mountain town, there was one girl who had stubbornly insisted on tagging along with her brothers. She was the most gifted of the whole group, but she was a girl, and I had envi- sioned the character as a boy. After the audition was over, she ran and jumped into one of our production vans parked outside and refused to climb out. The role was cast there and then. How could I make a film about a woman’s refusal to give up and not be moved by the fight in this six year-old girl? Valentina Berisa cast herself.

Production Notes

In fitting with its nationally non-specific story, the film’s creative team came from all over the world. The lead cast came from , the United Kingdom, and Albania, with support- ing cast from Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria. Our production team joined us from the United States, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey, Germany, and France. This international group of filmmakers found themselves in Nova Varos, a small, multi-ethnic mountain town in southwestern Serbia, where along with the local townspeople, we lived and worked for two months.

It was a fascinating and troubling experience to make a fiction film about war alongside so many people who had recently experienced conflict first hand. One cast member had lost an arm to a NATO bomb not far from our shooting locations; another had lost a cousin to a land- mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo; one of our crew had developed childhood cancer from the stress of life during wartime in Croatia. These personal experiences were instrumen- tal in inspiring common cause and solidarity during our shoot. Each cast and crew member, regardless of nationality, was able to identify and engage deeply with the universal themes and experiences in the film’s narrative, in part because of the personal relationships devel- oped during production. By the end of the shoot, many long term friendships had been cre- ated among people between whom there had formerly been a vague mistrust. This is also an important accomplishment of the film, and the production team’s greatest source of pride.

4 5 About the Writer/Director

ARIELLE JAVITCH, born in 1975, is from New York City. She came to filmmaking from a contem- porary dance and performance background, and in 2002 began making short dance films that gradually evolved into short narratives. Her work has been awarded support and recognition from Cinereach, the Sundance Institute/Annenberg Foundation, the Edit Center, New York State Council on the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, and Dance Films Association. She was also recently cited as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 Filmmakers to Watch.” Javitch is a former Fulbright Scholar in modern history. LOOK, STRANGER is her first feature film.

About the Cast

ANAMARIA MARINCA trained at the University of Fine Arts, Music and Drama George Enescu, in the Romanian city of lasi where she also taught for four years. Her work for the theatre has included productions in Romania and the UK - Youth Theatre (Piatra Neamt), Bulandra The- atre (Bucharest) Complicite. and The Young Vic (). For her work on stage, Anamaria won the award for Best Actress of the Year at the Young Actors Gala in Mangalia in 2000. She first came to wider public attention in 2005 when she won a Best Actress BAFTA for her per- formance in the British TV mini-series “” by David Yates. Soon after, An- amaria was cast by as one of the female leads – Otilia – in his Cannes Palme d’Or-winning drama 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS (2007), which was her film acting debut. Her performance brought her a nomination as Best Actress for the 2007 European Film Awards and the award for Best Actress from the jury of the Stockholm International Film Festival. Anamaria worked with on YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH (2007), and also appeared in the BBC1 TV mini-series THE LAST ENEMY by Iain B MacDonald, Radu Muntean’s BOOGIE (2008), and Julie Delpy’s latest feature, THE COUNTESS (2009). She has also appeared in ’s (2009), which received two top awards at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and Hans-Christian Schmid’s STORM, which screened in competition at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival and was awarded the prize for Best Picture at the 2010 German Film Awards.

TOM BURKE trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Films include THIRD STAR, CLEAN SKIN, TELESTAR, CHERI, DONKEY PUNCH, and THE LIBERTINE. He was awarded the 2008 Ian Charleson Award for his stage performance in “Creditors”, presented at the and Brooklyn Academy of Music.

VALENTINA BERISA currently lives in Sjenica, Serbia. This is her first film.

6 7 About the Production Team

LISA MUSKAT (producer) is best known for discovering new talent, having produced the highly acclaimed first features of (GEORGE WASHINGTON), (MAN PUSH CART), and Jeff Nichols (SHOTGUN STORIES). She continued her career pro- ducing Green’s , UNDERTOW, and SNOW ANGELS, as well as Bah- rani’s CHOP SHOP. Currently Lisa is re-teaming with Green on and is producing Todd Rohal’s SCOUTMASTERS and Arielle Javitch’s debut LOOK, STRANGER. Lisa is the recipient of the Sundance / Mark Silverman Producing Award, and was named one of Vari- ety’s “Ten Producers to Watch.” Prior to producing, Lisa taught at the North Carolina School for the Arts and holds a Master’s from UCLA’s School of Film and Television.

SNEZANA PENEV (producer) has worked on both domestic and international co-productions, including HERE AND THERE, TRAVELATOR, and LOVELESS ZORITSA. She is currently developing MONUMENT TO MICHAEL JACKSON with director Darko Lungulov, and THE BATTERY MAN with Dusan Saponja.

MICHAEL SIMMONDS (cinematographer) is a two-time Independent Spirit Award nominee. He began his career shooting two feature films, MARATHON and SOUND BARRIER, for world- renowned filmmaker Amir Naderi. Simmonds is best know for his collaborations with director Ramin Bahrani on MAN PUSH CART, CHOP SHOP, GOODBYE SOLO, and the short film PLASTIC BAG, all of which have won numerous awards and played theatrically around the world. He also shot the award-winning films BIG FAN and ORDER OF MYTHS.

NEVENA MIJUSKOVIC (production designer), based in Belgrade, has designed and art-directed TOMORROW MORNING, THE RED COLORED GREY TRUCK, WHEN I GROW UP I’LL BE A KANGAROO, LOVING GLANCES, and YU.

TRAVIS SITTARD (editor) began his editing career with TV’s “NYPD Blue.” He started working in film with on David Gordon Green’s SNOW ANGELS. Other films include A BAG OF HAMMERS, THAT EVENING SUN, and LOW AND BEHOLD. He is currently working on the sec- ond season of HBO’s “Eastbound and Down.” He lives in Santa Monica, California.

ANDJELKA VLAISAVLJEVIC (co-producer) is an internationally educated UCLA MFA graduate, line producer and UPM in film and television production since 1979. She worked for Tapestry Films in Los Angeles between 1999 and 2005 and founded Work in Progress Productions in 2007. She has worked on over thirty films, including CORIOLANUS, THE BROTHERS BLOOM, DISTRICT 13: ULTIMATUM, and THE BIG PICTURE.

8 9 BRANISLAV SRDIC (co-producer) has been in the film business since 1970, and has worked on more than sixty productions as producer, line producer, production manager, and assistant director. His company, A Atalanta, based in Ljubljana, Slovenia, specializes in co-productions between Balkan, Eastern European, and Western countries.

ATILLA SALIH YÜCER (co-producer) studied in England and France before finishing his under- graduate degree at NYU’s film school. Through his production company in Turkey, Yaka Film, Atilla produced STOLEN EYES a Turkish/Bulgarian co-production that won awards at interna- tional festivals in Moscow, Sofia, Bergamo and Monte Carlo. In Istanbul and New York, Atilla has produced and/or assistant directed over ten feature films, as well as dozens of commer- cials and music videos. He recently produced a series of concert films, “Jazz Mix Festival”, for French television, and acted as co-producer and assistant director on the award-winning THREE BACKYARDS starring Edie Falco and Elias Koteas. Currently, Atilla is producing THUNDER, PERFECT MIND starring Vincent Kartheiser and Olivia Thirlby.

10 11 Credits

Muskat Filmed Properties Narwhale Productions in association with Work In Progress A Atalanta

Present an Arielle Javitch film LOOK, STRANGER

Cast Director of Photography Anamaria Marinca Michael Simmonds Tom Burke Valentina Berisa Production Designer Nevena Mijuskovic Written & Directed by Arielle Javitch Costume Designer Claudia Hill Produced by Lisa Muskat Casting Director Snezana Penev Dixie Chassay Arielle Javitch Editor Co-producers Travis Sittard Branislav Srdic Andjelka Vlaisavljevic Sound Supervision and Design Atilla Salih Yucer Jacob Ribicoff

12 13 Supporting Cast Weapons Expert Dialogue & Foley Editor Boris Ljujic Nikola Milivojevic Stuart Stanley Andjela Stamenkovic Naod Dile Zoric Animal Wrangler Rerecording Mixers Marko Markovic Omar Soljanin Andy Kris Nicolas Isia Jacob Ribicoff Vladimir Puric Prod. Sound Mixer Danilo Rondovic Nenad Sciban Foley Mixer Elena Drulovic Ryan Collison Nenad Ciric Boom Operator Celestine Olisa Aleksandar Perovic Foley Walker Jay Peck Additional Editor Make Up Artist Colin Patton Rondi Scott DI Colorist Stewart Griffin First Asst. Director Asst. Costume Designer Atilla Salih Yucer Biljana Grgur Post Production Supervisor David Laster Unit Production Manager Wardrobe Dragan Simeunovic Jelena Radojkovic Assistant to the Director Daphne Javitch Production Accountant Additional Casting Sandra Djurickovic Goran Stankovic Assistant Production Accountant Branislav Srdic Sanja Ilic Second Asst. Director Goran Stankovic Casting Assistant Production Secretary Milana Milunovic Albina Cicic Third Asst. Director Ajda Srdic Gaffer Assistant Production Coordinator Sebastien Cros Zoja Djordjevic Script Supervisor Aleksandra Kljajic Key Grip Assistant to Ms. Muskat Zoran Pecenkovic Alexander Uhlmann Art Director Gus Powell Electrician Production Counsel Marko “Kempi” Stamatovic Frankfurt, Kurnit, Klein & Selz PC Set Dresser Hamish Berry Predrag Petrovic First AC / Focus Puller Gabriella Ludlow Aleksander Djurisic Property Master Post Production Services Vladan Ivanov Second AC provided by Ivan Stepanovic Final Frame Decorators Dusko Kutlesic Red Camera Technician Camera-Lighting-Grip Equipment Vlasto “Buco” Rvovic Luka Matijevec provided by A Atalanta Property Buyers Still Photographer Vlade Puric Gus Powell Post Production Sound Facility Dzevad Dzanovic Sound One Corp Milorad “Dzambo” Dzambasevic Assistant Editors Christopher Branca Painter Milan “Pop” Popovic Stanko Nikacevic

Made with support from This film was made possible in part with support from Cinereach The Sundance Institute’s Annenberg Film Foundation The Edit Center New York State Council on the Arts

14 15 Format

Running Time: 86 minutes Language: English Country of Origin: USA/Serbia/Slovenia Shooting Format: Color HD (Red) Exhibition Format: 2K DCP (1:85) Audio Format: 5.1 Linear PCM

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16 17 Press Images Available for downloaded at www.lookstrangerfilm.com

LOOK, STRANGER Film Still 1027_407 LOOK, STRANGER Film Still 1028_477 LOOK, STRANGER Film Still 1031_220 LOOK, STRANGER Film Still 1111_095 Caption: Anamaria Marinca in the film “LOOK, STRANGER”, Caption: Anamaria Marinca in the film “LOOK, STRANGER”, Caption: Anamaria Marinca in the film “LOOK, STRANGER”, Caption: Anamaria Marinca & Tom Burke in the film Written & Directed by Arielle Javitch. Written & Directed by Arielle Javitch. Written & Directed by Arielle Javitch. “LOOK, STRANGER”, Written & Directed by Arielle Javitch. Credit: Photograph by Gus Powell © 2010 by Narwhale Productions Credit: Photograph by Gus Powell © 2010 by Narwhale Productions Credit: Photograph by Gus Powell © 2010 by Narwhale Productions Credit: Photograph by Gus Powell © 2010 by Narwhale Productions Download Link: http://www.lookstrangerfilm.com/press/images/ Download Link: http://www.lookstrangerfilm.com/press/images/ Download Link: http://www.lookstrangerfilm.com/press/images/ Download Link: http://www.lookstrangerfilm.com/press/images/ LookStranger_1027_407.jpg LookStranger_1028_477.jpg LookStranger_1031_220.jpg LookStranger_111_095

LOOK, STRANGER Film Still 1118_237 LOOK, STRANGER Film Still 1110_405 LOOK, STRANGER Film Still 1118_155 Caption: Anamaria Marinca & Valentina Berisa in the film Caption: Anamaria Marinca & Tom Burke in the film Caption: Anamaria Marinca & Valentina Berisa in the film “LOOK, STRANGER”, Written & Directed by Arielle Javitch. “LOOK, STRANGER”, Written & Directed by Arielle Javitch. “LOOK, STRANGER”, Written & Directed by Arielle Javitch. Credit: Photograph by Gus Powell © 2010 by Narwhale Productions Credit: Photograph by Gus Powell © 2010 by Narwhale Productions Credit: Photograph by Gus Powell © 2010 by Narwhale Productions Download Link: http://www.lookstrangerfilm.com/press/images/ Download Link: http://www.lookstrangerfilm.com/press/images/ Download Link: http://www.lookstrangerfilm.com/press/images/ LookStranger_1118_237.jpg LookStranger_1110_405.jpg LookStranger_1118_155.jpg

LOOK, STRANGER Director Arielle Javitch Caption: Arielle Javitch, Writer/Director “LOOK, STRANGER” Credit: Photograph by Gus Powell © 2010 by Narwhale Productions Download Link: http://www.lookstrangerfilm.com/PressPhotos/ LookStranger_ArielleJavitch.jpg

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