Laughter — Altertise Film & TV

my morning laughter

Film is funded by Film Center of Serbia and Kragujevac Municipality

Synopsis

Dejan, even though he is almost thirty, is still a virgin. He tries to repress the turmoil he feels, caused by living under the same roof with his drunken father and overprotective mother, enough to see if he can actually have more than just friendship with Kaća, a nice girl he works with. After the local psychic humiliates him during the séance, Dejan realizes he has nothing to lose. Empowered by that realization he attempts to make his life at least bearable.

Director`s statement

"My mourning laughter” is a coming of age movie but with one huge exception: the main protagonist is not a teenager but a 30 year old virgin. In a broader sense it is a story about my generation, a generation that was overprotected by our parents, who gave their best at shielding us from the awful reality that was lurking outside of our homes. But, through the years, little by little, they lost their strength, and our families started to collapse. That is the starting point of this film, keeping up with Dejan as he tries to overcome his broken family situation and be a man in his own right, not just someone’s son.

The idea for this film came to me when, out of curiosity, I went to see a local psychic. The conversation went nothing how I expected. He, the psychic, spent a great deal of time not predicting the future, but talking about my sex life. Some things that he was saying were true, some were not, but the words that he used and the passion behind them were so strong that when I got home, I wrote them down immediately in fear of forgetting them. That is when it all started, and I soon began remembering scenes, either from my life or from the people around me, scenes that matched the authenticity of the "psychic scene". I realised it then, when the script was over, that all the scenes spoke about a young man struggling with self-doubt in very shameful and stressful situations for him. It is quite a funny film at times, but in a way that is uncomfortable to watch because there is the banal truth underneath. I would like to think that we captured the distinct humour for which the Balkan people are well known, and that we found a way to have both, the humour and the sadness, in almost every shot of the film.