Croatian master of comedy

He is no new face in the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK). In fact he has a special attachment to this film fete. It was here that his first independent film Love Life of Gentle Coward had its world premiere. Award winning filmmaker Pavo Marinkovic is back to familiar turf, with his latest venture Ministry of Love (Ministarstvo ljubavi), which is being screened in the World Cinema category.

Ministry of Love is his second film as a solo director, but Pavo likes to call it as his ‘2.5th’ directorial. “Treseta — that was my first film. But I did it along with Drazen Zarkovic, and I wrote its screenplay. So, I would call it ‘halfth’ film,” he laughs.

Laughter is his ‘tool’ to convey his ideas to the audiences. All his independent movies come under the genre of comedy. “Yes, I prefer to do such movies, because it is close to my sensibility. In the meantime, scenes like a character falling off a chair can’t be seen in my films because I do not opt for slapstick comedy. You can see only good comedy in my works,” he says.

Pavo points out that even when his films have a humour track, the main theme will always a serious one. “In Ministry of Love, it is a comedy of loneliness. The hero of this film is not a perfect guy, but his activities make him endearing to the audiences,” says the director who hails from Croatia.

He feels that his films are getting more viewers in film festivals and Television, than during its theatre releases. “You know what, more than 100 people were sitting on the floors the other day when my film was shown at a theatre here. In the meantime, in my country, these films are being screened with just 6 to 10 people,” he laughs. He adds, “The majority of the viewers in our theatres are teenagers. They opt to watch mass films and 3D flicks, which run in fully packed cinemas. In the meantime, when our films reach channels after 6 months, we are getting good viewership. Because, it is mostly families who prefer to watch such films,” he sums up.