Our latest short film 'An Ode to Love' has been doing the festival circuit recently having had its Australasian premiere at Melbourne International Animation Festival (MIAF) back in July. We caught up with 'An Ode to Love' writer and director, former Brown Bagger and New Zealand native, Matthew Darragh, as he headed to Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina for the Kratkofil International Short Film Festival screening of 'An Ode To Love'. He gave us the highlights of his trip and a glimpse of what Kratkofil is all about…

The old Hotel Bosna rests in the centre of Banja Luka, opposite the Orthodox Church. Inside the carpets are fading, but the rooms are still stately with warm dark wooden furniture and high ceilings. Outside each lift there is a foot rack to dust and polish your shoes, and on the ground floor waits an old fashioned casino with tables permanently set for blackjack and baccarat. In the dining room the breakfast waiters wear black bow ties and never smile as they serve watermelon and cheese to the guests. The hotel feels like a monument to a different time, like a retired diplomat who has decided to stay.

Most of the film makers and guests of the Kratkofil Film Festival are staying here, from countries as diverse as Argentina, Mexico, Montenegro, Germany and Sweden. They are lively and animated and easy to spot in the breakfast buffet amongst the Bosnian families and local businessmen.

The bells from the Orthodox Church wake us each morning, but not far up the main street you can also hear the call to prayer from the local Mosque. Old Catholic steeples are present too and in some parts of the city you can actually see all three religious sites on the same street.

I’ve tried to learn as much as I can about Bosnia and Herzegovina over the last few days. The country is divided into two states but ruled by three presidents, representing each of the major ethnic groups of Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. Its recent independence as a nation came after the dissolution of Yugoslavia over twenty years ago, which led to the horrific Bosnian war of the early nineties. Sunil, a local Muslim who owns one of the guest houses tells me that the cultural divisions have always been here, dating as far back as the 4th century AD when the Balkan region was split in two to placate the powerful opposing Roman and Byzantine empires. For the last 2000 years it seems the ongoing challenge has been for these rich, vibrant and very different cultures to find a way of coexisting peacefully.

The Kratkofil International Short Film Festival has been running here since 2007, and has quickly become one of the main cultural events in Banja Luka. It’s a popular and friendly festival with four sessions of short films spread out over five days. The evening film screenings are shown on an outdoor screen in the grounds of the Kastel, the remains of a grand medieval fortress on the bank of the river Vrbas. It’s surprisingly hot here in Banja Luka, up to 35 degrees in the middle of the day, but the evenings are ideal for sitting outside and savouring the atmosphere of the castle grounds.

There is a bohemian feel to the festival. The festival staff are young and relaxed, and no one seems to know quite where the dinner or lunch will be served on our first day there. I hurried into a daytime screening 15 minutes late only to find the projectionist sitting and chatting to one of the audience members. Pretty soon we’ve all settled into an easy rhythm that just wanders slowly from event to event. The town itself seems also to move to this unhurried beat. The famous coffee shops that overflow into the squares seem just as full on a Wednesday as they did on Sunday. Suffering in the midday heat, I try to order a take away coffee and the waiter just looks confused and says that isn’t possible and why don’t I just sit down under the umbrella instead? One of the festival volunteers later tells me there is only one place in the whole city that serves take away coffee. Another volunteer tells me that when the country’s first ever McDonald’s opened up in Banja Luka in 2011, citizens loyal to local slow food outlets soon pushed it out, even holding a “farewell to McDonalds” party in front of the soon-to-be-closed restaurant. This is clearly not a city that likes being told to hurry up.

The festival volunteers in their brown shirts are everywhere. In the few moments when I’ve found myself alone, a volunteer is quickly at my side smiling and chatting and then running off to buy me a beer. They are ever present, organising transport, taking us on impromptu tours of the small city centre, and walking us to and from the venues so we don’t get lost. There are very few tourists here, so we draw frequent glances as we speak English walking down the lanes and through the squares. The young Bosnians are friendly and open and eager to know what we think of their country, if we are enjoying ourselves. It’s warm and disarming.

Despite Banja Luka being very hard to get to, the festival has a very international feel to it. There is a group from Sweden who have been working with local aspiring documentary makers, and a trio from Berlin who are hosting a guerrilla type 24 hour film competition which challenges local entrants to make one minute films entirely on their phones. The competition screenings show live action, documentary and animated shorts from a wide mix of countries and cultures, and the programme has a great balance of indie and commercial films.

I couldn’t wait to see An Ode to Love in this magical setting. I made my way right to the far stone wall of the large courtyard for the screening, so I could get a view of the castle walls, screen and audience all together. It was an unforgettable 7 minutes that I wished our hard working crew could have been here to see. It was over so quickly though. Next time we’ll need to make a longer film.

(Photo copyright Kratkofil Plus)

After the screenings we all relocate to the Castle Gardens where the closing night party is in full swing. The band is a well known Serbian Guitar outfit called The Bambi Molesters, of Breaking Bad fame. With the last note of their encore thunder booms, the skies open up and the garden is pelted with warm rain. We take shelter together with the band under the small stage canopy; musicians, film makers, festival staff and locals all huddling together to stay dry. The mood stays high despite the unexpected downpour.

Check out the trailer for 'An Ode to Love' below: