HER DRESS FOR THE FINAL

Short Talk with Martina Meštrović (director)

Croatia / 2023 / 8'45“

BEST ANIMATION FILM Category

21st IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival 2024

Synopsis: One day my granny dyed her wedding dress black. She wanted to be buried in it.

Biography: Martina Meštrović (1974) graduated on a Sculpture department from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1998. She has held several solo and group exhibitions. In 2004, she joins the art collective Kreativni sindikat, working as a 2D and 3D set designer, animator and director. She lives and works in Zagreb.

Martina Meštrović, Director

Martina Meštrović (director): This is a personal story, because my grandma decided to this. In one lunch my dad just told that she decided dying her dress black and wanted to be buried in that dress. That idea was so bizarre, so I was thinking about it and when I found out that information, my grandma was dead аlready, so I didn't have the chance to ask her about that and I had so many questions. I found out in my 30s, but waited to get a little bit older, change perspective and be closer to this aging, so it would be easier for me to make this film about her I try to put myself into her shoes. 

I wanted to show this concept that you reach life but at the end of it, when you get in old, lots of people are alone and need a human touch and they're dreaming about better days let's say when they were young, old people also have these needs for love they're missing everything what they got before.

I also was using this narrower format because I wanted it to feel like somebody is sneaking what she's doing and it to be kind of my position and then when she starts to dream then I open the screen, and it becomes wider. It was also idea to change the space around her, because I was interested how routine becomes a ritual. So, somehow, I wanted to make a simple film showing one ordinary day and then getting to point when that ordinary day becomes something special.

Author's View:

Inspired by a personal story that happened in her family circle, the director mirrors an action of her grandmother by creating this film and building the image of the main character. How contradictory and unusual to find out that she decided to use her wedding dress later as a funeral one by dyeing it black. We, as viewers, are drawn into this paradox, this contrast of colors and meanings. 

The decision to use different screen expansions at the beginning and at the end allows us to immerse
ourselves in the author's concept and perfectly shows the denouement of events.

By following our elderly lady, we live one quiet, routine day, we see her getting ready, walking around the apartment, dancing, putting on makeup, and then unexpectedly witness how her ordinary day changes and turns into something special, something eternal.

Amazing implementation of an idea, insightful ending, beautiful collision and combination of accents and visions, that at first glance are too opposite to each other, but this movie makes us realize that they are part of the same integral whole.