2 October 2024

The 49-year-old Serbian film-maker studied dramaturgy nearly three decades ago in the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade.

“My first love was theatre and then I switched to film but I continue to work in theatre because as a director it enhances your communication skills working with actors,” says Rsumovic, who currently teaches film at Singidunum University in Belgrade.

The prolific writer and filmmaker has worked as a screenwriter on several hit Serbian films and TV shows including Guardians of the Formula (2023) Golden Boy (2022) and Kalup (2020).

His 2014 directorial debut and first feature film, No One’s Child, received more than 30 international awards. It tells the story of a young boy found living with wolves in the mountains of Bosnia who subsequently gets sent to an orphanage in Belgrade.

“I also studied Jungian psychology, which might explain why I’m attracted to stories that have a collective archetypal grounding,” says Rsumovic. “Actually, Dwelling Among the Gods feels like a modern-day version of the ancient Greek tragedy, Antigone.”

Rsumovic returned to the director’s chair with his latest feature film, which contains a mesmerising performance from Afghan-Iranian actor Fereshteh Hosseini, who plays the role of the young Afghan refugee, also named Fereshteh.

It was only when they started filming that the director learned that Fereshteh Hosseini comes from a family of Afghan refugees who later moved to neighbouring Iran. “This meant Fereshteh brought a lot of authenticity to her character and she also contributed to the creative process during the shooting of the film, giving tips on how to avoid clichés and racial stereotypes,” Rsumovic says.

“Despite the religious conservatism in their country, Afghan women are actually very strong and independent. And by the end of this film, you really get a sense that Fereshteh and her family, against all the odds, are going to have a better future.”

For most of the film, though, Fereshteh struggles to maintain her sanity. A language barrier between her and the Serbian authorities presents numerous difficulties. She does not speak Serbian and can only communicate in Hazaragi, a dialect of Persian spoken in Afghanistan. Any conversations she does have with the Serbian authorities are via a compassionate Farsi-language translator, played by Nikola Ristanovski, who is also called Nikola.

“Many people from Afghanistan and Iran who have seen the film were surprised, even shocked, but ultimately impressed, when they saw this Serbian guy, Nikola, speaking their language so perfectly,” Rsumovic remarks.

There is a rough plan in the pipeline to release Dwelling Among the Gods in Iran. But no final date has been confirmed. The Serbian director hopes when it happens, his Farsi will have improved. He has taken some lessons but says his grasp of the language is still basic: “It was a fascinating challenge to work on a movie where half of the dialogue is conducted in a language I don’t really understand.”