“Roots”

Director Biography

Working in diverse fields from film to video art, Tea Lukač has directed short fiction films, documentaries, music videos and showcased at art exhibitions. Tea’s work thus far has traveled to film festivals worldwide, including Trieste, Jihlava and Dok.fest Munchen.

She acquired Master’s degree with a documentary ‘The
Most Important Boy in the World’ which premiered at IFF Beldocs in 2016 and won the awards for best music documentary at Doc’n’Rhytam IFF and best documentary at Balkan FF in Sweden 2017. Tea is a member of DokSerbia and an alumna of Ex Oriente.
Her debut film, conceptual documentary ROOTS is set to premiere at the East of the West selection of Karlovy Vary IFF.

Selected filmography:
Roots, 2021, 80’
Belonging, 2020, 50’

Director’s Statement

This is a deeply intimate film as it was shot in my hometown of Dvor in central Croatia. I left it when I was 6 years old due to war breaking out and unfortunately, as it often happens with wars, written and visual traces of culture and personal histories end up being gone and scattered, mine included. From toys I used to play with, photos of my family, places and people end up existing only in the cloud of hearsay – personal mythology never quite palpable, like a puzzle always missing a few pieces to be complete. What is left are just habits, rituals, oral tradition and luckily – people. That being said, although inevitably in the DNA of the place, ROOTS is not a film about war, but one about stories struggling not to be forgotten.

ROOTS is made out of long static shots of similar duration, filmed from the inside of a moving car. We see 7 different groups of passengers and stories they carry, arranged symbolically to follow a life span – from childhood to old age and final absence. As our passengers ‘grow older’, the stories become more serious and lively chit-chats are replaced with worrying about social issues, preserving tradition and reflections on life before finally coming full circle with return to childhood memories.

Content of the conversations is based on authentic stories, customs, rituals and culture of people who live in Dvor. Due to its rare practice, conversations about the events and life seem absurd and unreal, thus making passenger’s conversations as such as well. The car never stops, on the contrary – it is always on the move and in motion. Focus is on repetition of the travel and rhythmic pauses. Visually, body and space are juxtaposed. People are the ones that are always still while the landscape is in constant movement.

Inspired by real wild taxi drivers from the area, although inevitably present, the driver is not an active character of the film. He is treated like an abstract figure, just a necessary means to make the vehicle move, or more specifically – creating a feeling that the vehicle moves by itself. Focus is on the passengers and the ride itself.

Surrounded by vast forest, nature and weather are a dominant element of the place. Uninhabited houses are scattered along the hills. Rivers are see-through clean, fast and full of small cascades. Woods are dark green, hidden with fog, frighteningly quiet and still, especially during winter when wind, rain and fog prevail.

Combined with one-take scenes from the car, exterior shots of landscapes seen in harsh weather (fog, rain, wind) separate each journey, juxtaposing two spaces – indoor and outdoor, intimate and public one aiding to the conflict of transience and eternity.

Without a clear beginning or end, a dream-like world is created, both universal and isolated. While all stories are real, the framing is not quite, blurring the line between documentary, concept film, ethnography and fiction.

Our roots may be buried deep down but they are always with us, and even if cut they will outlive us. Like them, our ROOTS are not deprived of life, but from an unexpected place grew into a strangely wondrous and occasionally funny movie.