Mirjana Karanovic’s star shines brightly over this year’s (SFF). The Serbian actress-turned-director is presenting the world premiere of her latest feature , a film that circles the world of a middle-aged woman and how she deals with death that is also a film bursting with life. Karanovich’s breakthrough came in ’s Palme d’Or-winning and Oscar-nominated and the veteran actress spent decades establishing herself as one of the most acclaimed acting talents in Southern Europe, with starring turns in such acclaimed features as and , before, aged 60, she decided to move behind the camera.
Her feature debut as a director, (2016), premiered at Sundance will Karanovic starring as an unassuming Serbian wife and mother forced to confront her own mortality, and her husband’s dark secrets. “Karanovic’s quiet intelligence and innate humanity have been an asset in many of her roles and her debut in the director’s chair displays similar qualities,” read ‘s review at the time. Now comes , in which Karanovic again directs and stars in another story of a woman of a certain age struggling to break free from what the filmmaker describes as “the patriarchal rule of life.
” “I love unexpected things in life, especially in what I do. I love things that are not visible at first glance, things that I can imagine into existence,” Karanovic told in the lead-up to this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival. In a wide-ranging conversation, she also spoke about her life and career, .