Dissecting with Kafkaesque sombreness the mental anguish of a lonely widow who is secretly planning her death, Requiem for Mrs. J nevertheless contains a hefty dose of dark humour typical of the Balkans.
Jelena has had enough of life. Her husband died a year ago, and she feels tired and lonely – in spite of her two daughters and her mother-in-law who all share her flat. She has decided that on the anniversary of her husband’s death she will commit suicide. She has a pistol ready for the job. She has taken out her life insurance policy and got a mason to put her portrait photograph on her gravestone. Gradually, this quiet, humble woman begins to realise that nothing’s simple in a country that’s constantly swinging back and forth between torment and transition.
“The idea originates from my intimate acquaintance with a woman who, it seems, embodies a typical victim of the transition process in Serbia. She is a modest, quiet woman, who does not want to bother anyone, without a husband, job or redundancy pay. The film deals with one of the painful and unavoidable issues of Eastern Europe – social transition and economic crisis. The new political and economic systems are altering the old face of socialism, bringing big changes in the value system, which inevitably leads, as in this case, to a total identity crisis.” (Bojan Vuletić)
Bojan Vuletić
Born in Belgrade in 1977, Vuletić studied film and television directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. His feature film debut, Practical Guide to Belgrade with Singing and Crying, won a number of awards. He collaborated as a co-writer with Stefan Arsenijević on Lost and Found and Love and Other Crimes.