SEEfest 2021 Interviews: LANDSCAPE ZERO’s Bruno Pavić talks about the taking a different approach and style to the environmental documentary

Bruno Pavić’s LANDSCAPE ZERO, which just screened at the 2021 South East European Film Festival, is a documentary about environment. Not environmentalism, but the environment we live in and find ourselves existing in. It’s an important distinction, as the film places us in a small coastal area has been destroyed by the presence of industrial facilities. However, it doesn’t give us a stream of talking heads explaining how the pollution emitted from those facilities is affecting the lives around it. No, it just lets you “live” there during the duration of the film. LANDSCAPE ZERO follows the lives of people who are either fighting for their survival among the dangerous facilities or coexisting with them in harmony. Everyday scenes intertwine with different art performances, depicting the adjustment of people and animals to the degraded environment. It’s the kind of film that isn’t aiming to make a “direct hit” with its message, but rather, wants to stay with you awhile.

In the interview, we talk about why and how Bruno took the “artistic” documentary approach with this film and its subject, including not wanting to be perceived as an activist through the filmmaking. We also talk about a moment of improvisation he had while shooting the film, and how some of that came from the reluctance of interview subjects to actually appear in the film.