AFI Fest: From Queen & Slim to Babyteeth, to Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Female Moviemakers Took the Lead

Ivana the Terrible

Director Ivana Mladenović is the anything-but-“terrible” lead in her deeply personal, but always playful, look at a moderately successful moviemaker who returns home to her small town in Serbia after a project that took a toll on her well-being. Mladenović’s actual family and former lovers, and even officials from the mayor’s office, play loose versions of themselves in the film. Mladenović explained in a Q&A at the fest that it was easier to convince her parents to participate because they “were hoping that this film would never be finished and would never be shown.” She adds, in a strange twist: “I think that my father now wants to be an actor. He started enjoying it… At one point he said, ‘I’m the best. You’re all not as good as I am.'”

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“The personal is always political” is the oft-repeated adage and it rings true in this small movie as well. Mladenović’s hometown is set on the Serbian-Romanian border, and a real annual festival celebrating the relationship between the two countries stands at the center of the story. —Caleb Hammond

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