Synopsis
Tatjana lives as a single mother in a notorious suburb of Amsterdam. She runs a tiny hotel in one of the rooms. Guests gladly listen about her youth in Perestroyka time Russia, her childhood in Yugoslavia, search for love in England and giving birth on the floor of an Amsterdam squat. The tourists don’t mind fixing a creaking toilet seat either, or watching Star Wars with Tatjana’s son Waldemar (14). They show Waldemar the warmth of a community, which, in the individualistic outside world, is difficult to find, or so Tatjana is convinced. She records it all, feeling that her unorthodox way of creating a community is the best of both worlds. It is wonderful to be a citizen of the world!
And then, disaster strikes: Tatjana’s tiny kingdom succumbs to the blows of a pandemic. She is now on her own and misses her guests terribly. Being a citizen of the world is not sustainable in a pandemic, but if she is not that, what is she?
From this low point Tatjana decides to go on an intimate and emotional journey visiting people from her past. Layer by layer she discovers deeper reasons for the feeling of not belonging. Is it being single after once being an ‘imported bride’ whose social network is lost once the relationship is over? Or maybe there is something about being an ‘Eastern European’ in the West? But maybe it goes even deeper, all the way to family tragedy and childhood traumas?
The journey takes her to people from her past, family and friends scattered around Europe, to immigrant communities in an attempt to redefine what it really is to belong someplace away from home and position yourself in society.
Couldn’t we use the best of both East and the West of Europe and marry that warmth with that freedom, that togetherness with that independence, she wonders? Her close friend tells her to grow up, world citizenship is for adolescents.
Synopsis
Tatjana lives as a single mother in a notorious suburb of Amsterdam. She runs a tiny hotel in one of the rooms. Guests gladly listen about her youth in Perestroyka time Russia, her childhood in Yugoslavia, search for love in England and giving birth on the floor of an Amsterdam squat. The tourists don’t mind fixing a creaking toilet seat either, or watching Star Wars with Tatjana’s son Waldemar (14). They show Waldemar the warmth of a community, which, in the individualistic outside world, is difficult to find, or so Tatjana is convinced. She records it all, feeling that her unorthodox way of creating a community is the best of both worlds. It is wonderful to be a citizen of the world!
And then, disaster strikes: Tatjana’s tiny kingdom succumbs to the blows of a pandemic. She is now on her own and misses her guests terribly. Being a citizen of the world is not sustainable in a pandemic, but if she is not that, what is she?
From this low point Tatjana decides to go on an intimate and emotional journey visiting people from her past. Layer by layer she discovers deeper reasons for the feeling of not belonging. Is it being single after once being an ‘imported bride’ whose social network is lost once the relationship is over? Or maybe there is something about being an ‘Eastern European’ in the West? But maybe it goes even deeper, all the way to family tragedy and childhood traumas?
The journey takes her to people from her past, family and friends scattered around Europe, to immigrant communities in an attempt to redefine what it really is to belong someplace away from home and position yourself in society.
Couldn’t we use the best of both East and the West of Europe and marry that warmth with that freedom, that togetherness with that independence, she wonders? Her close friend tells her to grow up, world citizenship is for adolescents.
Stage of Production
Tatjana Bozic has been researching and filming this movie since 2019 and has successfully pitched it internationally.
The project is being produced through a Croatian-Dutch-German co-production with the involvement of HBO Max and funding from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, MOIN Film Fund Hamburg, and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts.
The film has finished shooting and is currently in the editing phase.
The premiere is scheduled for spring 2025.
Stage of Production
Tatjana Bozic has been researching and making this film since 2019. Originally she wanted to make a film about tourists in Amsterdam. With the Corona pandemic when the tourists dropped out and Tatjana’s little world collapsed, the idea to make a bigger film about belonging and identity was born. The film project was successfully pitched internationally.
A Croatian-Netherlands-German co-production is planned. Money has already been acquired from Croatian and Dutch film funds. HBO Europe will co-produce the film. Most of the financing has been secured as of January 2022.
Shooting is scheduled to start in summer 2022 and the film is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.
Director’s Motivation
I would like People in my House to be an emotional film, a dramedy, with a touch of nostalgia in it. Nostalgia in me for all that is lost is a feeling that often drove me and that I used in creating emotional scenes in my films. The loss that this film talks about – the loss of roots, of community, of the feeling of belonging is known probably to anyone who has ever left their conservative village to embrace a free-spirited metropolis and to one who, like me, moved countries several times.
Being open to new cultures and people for sure makes you free, and I think it gives you a unique possibility to look at each new city and country, also your own, from the position of an observer. Still, it is a loss.
I didn’t come to the West of Europe in search of a job, education or a better life. I came here, as a result of the world becoming a global village and instead of falling in love with a boy from the neighbourhood, as my childhood friends did, I fell in love with someone from a country far away. It was a new time when you would look beyond your horizon, and with my uprooted upbringing, I was more than ready to embrace it. Although I integrated well, it doesn’t feel like I did. The film about my own feeling of uprootedness touches on today’s difficult subjects like immigration and integration. This is why this film is important, we need to understand the need for belonging, so we do not end up on islands, living nearby, but never being close.
Director’s Motivation
I would like People in my House to be an emotional film, a dramedy, with a touch of nostalgia in it. Nostalgia in me for all that is lost is a feeling that often drove me and that I used in creating emotional scenes in my films. The loss that this film talks about – the loss of roots, of community, of the feeling of belonging is known probably to anyone who has ever left their conservative village to embrace a free-spirited metropolis and to one who, like me, moved countries several times.
Being open to new cultures and people for sure makes you free, and I think it gives you a unique possibility to look at each new city and country, also your own, from the position of an observer. Still, it is a loss.
I didn’t come to the West of Europe in search of a job, education or a better life. I came here, as a result of the world becoming a global village and instead of falling in love with a boy from the neighbourhood, as my childhood friends did, I fell in love with someone from a country far away. It was a new time when you would look beyond your horizon, and with my uprooted upbringing, I was more than ready to embrace it. Although I integrated well, it doesn’t feel like I did. The film about my own feeling of uprootedness touches on today’s difficult subjects like immigration and integration. This is why this film is important, we need to understand the need for belonging, so we do not end up on islands, living nearby, but never being close.
TATJANA BOŽIĆ
TATJANA BOŽIĆ, director (Croatia/The Netherlands) graduated Higher School of screenwriters and directors, Moscow.
Her diploma film at the Moscow Film School “Provincial Girl” (1995, 35 mm, 30′, co-director F. Müller) was awarded “Best Russian documentary of 1996” in Ekaterinburg.
Since then she made documentaries wherever she lived: Russia, UK, Croatia and Netherlands. Her last feature film HAPPILY EVER AFTER (83’ JvdW Film/IKON, Factum, Zelovic) was premiered at IFF Rotterdam and nominated for Tiger Awards. The film had a cinema distribution in The Netherlands (Cineart), France, Croatia, Slovenia and was screened as part of KineDok in other EU countries. HAPPILY EVER AFTER was broadcast beside Europe, in New Zeland and Japan ,screened on more that 40 festivals worldwide and won several awards.
Award selection: Netherlands FF Utrecht, Golden Calf best editing and nomination for Best Director (2014); DocuDays Kiev – Special Jury mention (2015); Dutch director guild – nomination most remarkable directing performance (2015)
Tatjana is a graduate of the Documentary Campus Masterschool; participant of the EAVE Producers Workshop and the ExOriente Workshop. She has presented her projects at IDFA Forum, East Meets West, Thessaloniki, EastDoc Prague, Riga Baltic Sea Doc, Dok Leipzig and DocLisboa, among others.
Tatjana Bozic
Croatian born, Tatjana lived and made films in Russia, England, Croatia and Netherlands.
In the UK, she worked on various advertising projects and studied Human Rights at the London School of Economics, as well as working as a journalist for NTV, Russian TV.
In Croatia, she directed more than 20 short documentaries, often concerning civil society in the post-war country and women’s way of perceiving and experiencing the world.
She co-funded Fade In, a documentary studio that today is one of the leading productions in the region. She worked for MTV as a one-woman crew and directed several socially engaged advertisements.
Since 2008 she lives in Amsterdam where she is, besides directing, teaching, co-writing and coaching new directors. She is also a trained coach in Method Acting, Life Coaching, Eating disorders therapy, Drama therapy, Family constellations and NLP.
In 2015, she co-founded a production company, LEWA productions.
Tatjana is alumni of Documentary Campus Masterschool; participant of EAVE Producers Workshop and ExOriente workshop. She pitched projects at IDFA Forum, East Meets West, Thessaloniki, EastDoc Prague, Riga Baltic Sea Doc, Dok Leipzig and DocLisboa among others.
Filmography
2014 Happily Ever After ( 83 min.) – Creative Documentary – Tiger Award Competition IFF Rotterdam, Golden Calf for Best Editing
2010-2011 Surprising Europe (9×25 min.) – Documentary series – AlJazeera English
2003–2005 A woman with a camera/My Sister Eastern Europe (12×22 min.) -TV Serial – Broadcast in prime time on Croatian state television (HRT).
2002 Dear Suzy (40 min.) Short documentary – Fade in/B.a.B.e., Kvinna till Kvinna (Schweden)
1996 Provincial Girl (30 min.) – Short documentary- Sheffield FF, Best Russian Documentary Film at the Russian Documentary Film Festival Yekaterinburg 1995
Fact Sheet
Genre:
Creative Documentary
Length:
90 / 52 min
Director:
Tatjana Bozic
Screenplay:
Tatjana Bozic, Jacob Gesink,
Producers: Magdalena Petrovic
LEWA
(Croatia)
Frank Müller
DOPPELPLUSULTRA FILMPRODUKTION
(Germany)
Jacob Gesink
SPACEDUST Productions
(Netherlands)
Production Phase:
Post-production
Filming Locations:
Netherlands, Croatia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland
Languages:
Croatian, Dutch, English, German
Budget:
355.000,00 EUR
Release:
May 2025
Fact Sheet
Genre:
Creative Documentary
Length:
90 / 52 min
Director:
Tatjana Bozic
Screenplay:
Tatjana Bozic, Jacob Gesink,
Producers:
Magdalena Petrovic
LEWA
(Croatia)
Frank Müller
DOPPELPLUSULTRA FILMPRODUKTION
(Germany)
Wout Conijn
CONJIN FILM
(Netherlands)
Production phase:
End of development
Country of production:
Croatia, Germany, Netherlands
Country of filming:
Netherlands, Croatia, Austria, Germany, Swizerland
Languages:
Croatian, Dutch, English, German, Russian
Budget:
355.000,00 EUR
Release:
November 2023
Contact
Let’s keep in touch
DOPPELPLUSULTRA
FILMPRODUKTION GmbH
Repsoldstraße 45
20097 Hamburg
Germany
mail@doppelplusultra.de
www.doppelplusultra.de
LEWA productions j.d.o.o.
Čazmanska 4
10000 Zagreb
Croatia
Stichting SPACEDUST productions
Kelbergen 261
1104 LM Amsterdam
The Netherlands
info@jacobgesink.com
www.spacedustproductions.com