MARIJA DZIDZEVA, THE AUTHOR OF THE FILM «TONY MANDZA'S LIST»

MACEDONIAN JESSIE JAMES OR BILLY KID?

Your film has already been screened, and awarded as well at the international festivals, to mention now the award of the Festival «Black Box Balkan», held in Berlin . You were preparing this film and were working on it for more than two years, and it is a story about a young run-away from a prison, who became an assassin killing the people according to the list that he made. How did it happen that you, being a young woman, are interested in such, maybe even pathological, phenomenon?

That story happened in my hometown, Gevgelija, one of the most peaceful towns in former Yugoslavia in 1998.

I started working on the script between 2000 and 2001, and at that time nobody wanted to talk about that subject, yet. I was intrigued by that and I tried to discover how somebody can be afraid of an underage boy who was in prison, as well. I was working hard for a long time. It was difficult for me to reach Tony, and even more difficult to reach the people who allegedly were on that famous list. Nobody wanted to talk. Whenever I came to Gevgelija, they avoided me, as the word was spread that I was working on a film in which I was turning Tony into a hero. However, I managed to make the story and I was very happy then, as I wanted to have that film shown. After that, it took me another year to have the film actually screened. The Festival in Berlin helped me in that respect. After that, it was shown on the television, and what is most important, the film was selling well at the “black market”, despite a very high price for the pirate recording. At least half of the town has seen it in Gevgelija and Skopje alike.

What is the film epilogue?

There started reactions in the newspapers: what is the purpose of such a film, is that good or bad, is Tony shown as a hero and is he a model for the young generations. There were reactions saying that this problem should be talked about, if the society is to be blamed for tolerating an underage assassin, as Tony was, even before the murders, from the age of 13 to 16, suspected for more than a hundred thefts. The people agreed to condemn the security system, as he managed to escape from a state prison before the murders. After that, every six months, a new murder would happen in once peaceful Gevgelija, not to mention the whole Macedonia

That means that Tony was a double killer, he wounded another two people and he was also shooting at a group of young people who were in the street and in the prison. He is serving his sentence, but are you as the author of the film safe, as maybe you are on his “black list” as well?

Since one month ago Tony is not in the prison anymore. Since last September, every month, as a model prisoner, he was given permission to spend weekends at home. That is how the man got a vacation a month ago. There is another big question to the authorities: how could they let a man of such a profile and with such a record on vacation? He got 10 days of vacation, which he spent in Gevgelija. I read in the newspapers that he was walking along the streets like a movie star, allegedly visited some secondary schools and so on. Mainly, Tony has never come back to the prison and is now at large.

He has become a modern outlaw, Macedonian Jessie James, Gevgelija's Billy Kid?

I don't know, I have heard some rumors that he fled to Greece, others say that he is hiding somewhere in Skopje, the third say that he is still in Gevgelija, and nobody really knows where Tony is, so that it seems the “film” story is to be continued.

Does the collective paranoia continues as well?

I don't know, for me the motto of the film could be the logo of the film: "Are You the Next?", are you the next on the list since the assassin is still at large.

Marija, in your research for the film, you had to be a director but also a physiologist, a police detective, observer, to make the people talk. Is exactly that mixture of the different activities, in general, the reason why you are so interested in film?

That's true, as I am both a B.A. in the Macedonian language and literature, and a graduated film and television director. I am interested exactly in that, the social themes, and the challenges of discovering what is really happening to us, in all the segments of the society. And, of course, the possibility to make that discovery public. To start talking about the problems in all fields, to enter, to read between the lines and to think. We close the eyes, we don't know what it is like in Serbia , but it is believed with us that Macedonia is a fine, nice and peaceful country, in which nothing bad ever happens. The true problems must be talked about, without hiding. A significant moment is love, the most essential segment of our lives, regardless of whether it is the love for your family, country, among people. When there is no love, all those bad things happen. That is how the "Tony Mandza's List" is a film about love, i.e., what can happen if we lack love.

You are presently traveling to the festivals worldwide. Have you thought about a new film?

I have just finished a short documentary – feature film, of about thirty minutes, the working title of which is “You are Alive”. That is a story about two women in the “safe house”, a shelter for the victims of the human trafficking. One of the women is older, for already 15 years smuggled across different borders, and the other one is a young girl, just arrived at the shelter. "Tony Mandza" is a part of my imagined Decalogue, the story about murder, and I am making a Decalogue on God's Commandments, as well. I am preparing a screenplay about the subject of respecting the parents. Another theme that is very present with us is the increasing number of the young people who go to the monasteries to become monks. However, their parents were revolted and my film is about them, the parents who do not permit their children to enter a monastic order. On the other hand, there are those young people that want their right to the freedom of decision be respected. Another story is going on in Macedonia ; it is called “I am Looking for a Bride”, and it talks about a phenomenon in the surroundings of Bitola , where there a lot of single men aged between 30 and 50, and there are no girls. So, these boys initiated the “import” of the brides from Russia and Ukraine , and it is something that is really happening now. That will be the story "Love Thy Neighbour".

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