ZILLION film :: FALLING INTO PARADISE


	picture gallery from the set

FALLING INTO PARADISE
The film premiered on march 19. 2004 in Belgrade.

The story retraced by the film speaks about the events that fell upon our country in 1999, but from the prospective of a lucid patriot - interpreted by Lazar Ristovski - who tries to solve the war on his own. One might define it a black humor story. Still, it is, to a great extent an illustration of the average man from this part of the world seeking a way out when he is faced with a desperate situation. One way or the other. The hero of our story has sought HIS way.

Zillion film - Belgrade
Neue Impuls Film - Hamburg
MACT Productions - Paris
Rocketta Film - Amsterdam
Rotterdam Films - Rotterdam

With the support of :
Euroimage
Filmfund Hamburg
Dutch Filmfund
FondSud
Rotterdam Filmfund
Ministry of culture and Media of the Republic of Serbia

Written and directed by - Milos Radovic
Director of Photography - Piotr Kukla,
Art Director - Aleksandar Sale Denic,
Editing - Petar Putnikovic
Sound - Bertrand Come,
Music - Zoran Simjanović
Costumes Designer - Boris Cakširan,
Make up - Delphine Coutourier le More,
Executive producers -Branislav Srdic, Guido Hesse
Producers: Michael Eckelt, Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre,
Erik Schut, Dirk Rijneke, Lazar Ristovski

Cast:
Lazar Ristovski,
Branka Katic,
Simon Lyndon
Olivera Markovic
Bogdan Diklic
Predrag Ejdus
Nikola Pejakovic
Jovana Milovanovic
Tim Marshall
Ana Sofrenovic
Slobodan-Boda Ninkovic
Goran Danicic
Ljubomir Bandovic
Miodrag Popov
Biljana Srbljanovic

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picture gallery from the set

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FALLING INTO PARADISE Director's remarks

The FALLING INTO PARADISE building has several floors:

1st FLOOR

The first floor is where Tempo is. This is where the primary location of the fast story about a bizarre Serbian madman that shot down an AWCS plane because he was unnerved by the fact that his sister was posing for the pilots of the enemy plane. Then he kidnaps the pilot not knowing what to do with him.. The pilot tries to escape in various ways, but fails miserably. Finally, the pilot is saved and the story terminates with a happy ending..

Fast tempo, lots of short scenes. Suspense, then action, with a few melodramatic interludes. And all this in 90 minutes - precisely.

2nd FLOOR

Atmosphere is found on the second floor. This is the floor where the map of the Balkans is spread out like a carpet: one day of peace and hundred years of wars. This "climate" has generated the leading characters. Self-destructive, irrational, insane. They don't know when it all started. There genes are as old as their civilization. Only when someone comes from outside and mirrors their existence, can they catch a glimpse of what they were like once, before the Deluge. That's why the main hero comes from the skies. Straight from a completely different civilization. So, he will guess what may happen, and they will realize what they could have stayed like.

3rd FLOOR

The third floor is where the Idea is. Primarily the idea of recognition as the foundation of friendship. The two lead characters recognize their own innocence in a whirlpool of war. The American pilot is the instrument of someone's plans; the Serbian rebel is the victim of someone's blunder. Forced into a conflict, these two innocences will yield emotion, friendship. They will recognize each other. That's why the film ends with an optimistic note. It opens the prospective that an enormous number of innocent people will finally rebel against the small number of arrogant ones.

4th FLOOR

On fourth floor we find something larger than the Idea - Love itself. Pure and original, human. There are no real negative characters in this film, except for the few ones needed by the dramaturgy. Love between the two leading characters, love between the pilot and the little girl., and her mother, granny's love for the stranger, the hero's love for Belgrade...

They are all "funny loves" in our gentle film.

THE ATTIC

Up in the attic is where the Genre is. Our film is a comedy of the absurd..

THE ROOF

And what is up on the roof of the FALLING INTO PARADISE building? Nothing special: a few chimneys and TV antennas.

The primary task of those antennas is to radiate positive energy and the optimism generated by our film.

For, as the lead character says at a certain point in the film, we all hope (including us making the film) that soon the day will come when we will turn back into what we once used to be.

That's essentially why we are doing all this..

Miloš Radovic, writer and director
09.05.2003.

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World sales : Michael Eckelt
World rights : hamburg@neueimpuls.de
Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Republic of Srpska, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia: Zillion film zillion@nadlanu.com

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THE FILM WAS ENTIRELY SHOT IN SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO