DOCUMENTARY FILM ON MIODRAG TARANA PREMIERES

PALE, FEBRUARY 2 /SRNA/ - The documentary film “No Time for Fear” about Miodrag Tarana, one of the most talented film and cultural workers of Republika Srpska and former Yugoslavia, premiered on Monday evening in Pale.

Director Zoran Maslić told reporters that it was challenging to direct a film about a figure of Tarana’s stature, but he hopes that he and Snježan managed to come close to meeting those demands.

“He was not only the founder of the first film company of Republika Srpska, Srna Film, and one of the most important founders of the Radio-Television of Republika Srpska, but he was also a good friend of mine. It was only when I started working on this film that I realized what a truly heroic figure he was,” Maslić emphasized.

He underlined that this became fully clear to him only this year during the editing phase, and he expressed hope that the film will succeed in portraying at least a part of Tarana’s greatness.

Maslić noted that Tarana was an author who at first appeared simple, but at the same time worked on multiple things simultaneously, which often made it difficult even for his closest collaborators to fully understand him.

Producer Snježan Lalović emphasized that Miodrag Tarana was the man who brought Republika Srpska its first international award in the field of culture, and that this should be the main thing he is remembered for.

“Although we tend to forget people who have greatly contributed to this nation, with this film, we have tried to rescue one such figure from oblivion. People used to say that Tarana sometimes resembled an eagle, a falcon, or a hawk, and to some, he looked like someone who had been part of Che Guevara’s team,” Lalović said.

He added that Tarana’s wife often said she never knew whom she was waking up next to, a speleologist, an archaeologist, or a director, but that he was certainly an extraordinarily dynamic personality who left a significant mark.

Lalović said that many people do not know that Tarana was a prolific filmmaker even before the war, working from the amateur photo and film club in Trebinje to the film amateurs in Belgrade, and that his pre-war films produced for Television Sarajevo were highly regarded. It is precisely this period that the film focuses on.

According to him, no special logistics were needed for the making of “No Time for Fear," the editing and production were carried out with the help of his colleague Tihomir Trapara.

As he emphasized, the key factors were familiarity with Tarana’s body of work and contact with his friends, who were interviewed in the film.

Lalović noted that screenings of the film are planned in Trebinje and Banja Luka, and the film will close out the March Festival in Belgrade.

Miodrag Tarana began working in film while still a secondary school student in his native Trebinje, shooting films on eight-millimeter film.

He completed his studies in archaeology in Belgrade, during which time he joined the Academic Film Club. It was then that he met Mirko Avramović, with whom he made the film “From Me to You” /1972/.

After completing his studies, he moved to Sarajevo, where he worked for 15 years as a director at Television Sarajevo, up until the beginning of the war in BiH. He then went to Pale, where he participated in the establishment of Serbian Radio-Television /Channel S/, the predecessor of today’s Radio-Television of Republika Srpska.

In early July 1992, he founded the Public Enterprise of Republika Srpska, Srna Film, and served as its first director. In 2008, Srna Film became the Kinoteka /Cinematheque/ of Republika Srpska.

During the war, he filmed “The Summer I Spent” and “Peace in Janja," the first internationally awarded films of Republika Srpska.

He died in 1993 in a traffic accident in Novi Sad