In this exclusive feature article, Agata the Writer writer and director, Kuba Dorabialski, takes Cinema Australia behind the scenes of a shot from the upcoming film.
Agata (Mia Wasikowska) a disillusioned writer, arrives in Sarajevo to write a novel set during the Bosnian war. As she speaks with survivors, her project begins to dissolve. In the house where she is staying, objects begin to vanish, and the belief that lived experience and fiction starts to dissolve.
Agata the Writer is written and directed by Kuba Dorabialski, produced by Alex White, and stars Mia Wasikowska, Vedrana Bozinovic, Mia Morrissey and Selma Alispahic.
Agata the Writer will celebrate its Australian premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival on Thursday, 15 October. Details here.
“In this scene, our protagonist Agata (Mia Wasikowska) and her best friend Davina (Mia Morrissey) go out clubbing in Sarajevo after a long time living apart; Agata in Australia, and Davina in France.
Davina, the more lively and outgoing of the two, has convinced Agata to go out dancing, but it seems that Agata would rather stay home and watch TV with her old friend.
This was actually one of the hardest locations to pin down in the whole film.
We had to film it in Sydney, but pubs and nightclubs are such distinctive spaces that it’s hard to cheat them convincingly. Producer Alex White had an eleventh-hour revelation and pulled a few strings and we ended up filming this scene at the Cricketer’s Arms in Surry Hills in Sydney, though it’s meant to be in Bosnia.
I had gone out clubbing in Sarajevo a few months prior and had some reference photos and videos. Based on these references, set decorator Ruby Elliott and gaffer Mirco Guidon did a gorgeous job turning a grungy Sydney pub into a cheesy techno club in Sarajevo. My son, Roland, designed the posters and graffiti in the space.
Tobias Gilbert produced some fantastic Euro Trance music to sell the feel of a particular time and place. And Alex White deployed a powerful mix of no-nonsense tough gal and eye-winking charm to get the tradies with their loud tools on a neighbouring construction site.”
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