Film

By Tea Tupajić (IF 2012)

World premiere: 2021 International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam

How can anyone deal with the trauma left behind by war? In her debut film, Tea Tupajić asks this and other painful questions and sets off in search of answers and a moment of hope.

Tea Tupajić was seven years old when the civil war in the former Yugoslavia reached her hometown of Sarajevo. The scars the war left play a major role in her work as an artist. Tupajić asked Dutch UN soldiers Frank and Harm to spend an entire night in conversation with her in an empty theatre. Tupajić wants answers to some painful questions, but she also tries to discover something that can give her hope.
A woman, a man, and a camera: through this simple set-up “Darkness There and Nothing More” concentrates all attention on the words, gestures and acts in these two meetings. They show a dialogue between two worlds that won’t mix, regardless of a shared longing for some kind of deliverance. Harm carries a huge sense of guilt, while Frank is entirely closed off from his emotions. Tupajić tries to explain that none of her family and friends, despite being alive, really survived the war. Are they ever going to understand each other’s grief?

Artistic Team
Tea Tupajić – Director
Jean Counet NSC –  Cinematography
Marc Schmidt – Sound Recordist
Dick Merx, Aaron Homma, Evert Bazuin – Gaffers
Albert Markus – Editor
Roel Meelkop – Sound Design
Laurent Fluttert – Grading & Visual Effects
Marc Thelosen, André Schreuders – Production