Traces (Tragovi) is a sensitive portrayal by first-time feature director Dubravka Turic of a Zagreb academic’s journey through grief to identity. It is Croatia’s entry for the 2024 Oscars.
Tracks of My Tears
by Alexa DalbyTraces
[rating=3]
CAUTION: Here be spoilers
Traces is film editor Dubravka Turic’s (Zvonimir Juric’s The Reaper and Danilo Šerbedžija’s Tereza) debut feature, which she co-wrote with Danijel Zezelj and edited herself. Her short works have been screened at Sundance, Venice and Sarajevo, and the short Cherries (2017) she directed screened at Cannes.
It’s a sensitive unfolding of lonely anthropologist Ana’s (Marija Škaricic, Mare) grief and her eventual finding of herself. She suffers from a stress-induced autoimmune disease and is researching a book on ancient local burial customs. She lives in Zagreb in a large apartment (dating back to 1927) with her ailing father ((Mate Gulin). An audio reading of TS Eliot’s mournful The Love Song of J Alfred Prufock (was that uncredited voice Ben Whishaw?) is a soundtrack to the lives of her father and herself. Her friends in the city include an extrovert modern art gallery owner (Lana Baric), who encourages her to live a little.
The ancient graves (mirila) that obsess her have headstones written in unknown symbols, which Ana starts to see in urban graffiti: her research bleeds into her life as she tries to unravel them. When her father dies, Ana seeks respite and renewal in solitude in her family’s derelict stone cottage far in the depths of a country village amid some wonderful – to us in Britain – mountainous scenery and happier memories. A chance reunion there with a marvellously down-to-earth childhood friend Jozo (Niksa Butijer), a shepherd, reorientates her and enables her to move on as the season changes from careless summer to melting winter snowflakes.
Traces is quiet, slow and beautiful. The cinematography by Damjan Radovanovic (Stitches, No One’s Child) is full of stunning, meaningful contrasts and the music by Jonas Jurkunas is a very atmospheric piano with synth drone. The film isn’t strong enough to win an Oscar but it’s a lovely mood piece all the same, it’s fascinating to get a rare glimpse of contemporary Croatia and the skill shown augurs well for Turic’s future.
Traces premiered at the Warsaw Film Festival and screened at the Zagreb Film Festival in 2023. It has garnered awards from Paris to Pula and is Croatia’s entry in Best International Film for the 2024 Oscars. Traces is available on Mubi.
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