The Dream Job

Thanks to Eric at East Ethnia several days ago for calling my attention to a new documentary on turbofolk, Posao snova, made by the Bosnian director Danijela Majstorović.

Posao snova - The Dream Job - deals with the experience of women in the folk music industry, and rather than reproducing the usual stereotypes, promises to be what Eric calls 'the first film treatment that takes on the phenomenon in a way that respects its complexity': Majstorović has interviewed performers ranging from Lepa Brena and Hanka Paldum to young girls hoping to break into folk music, while also 'analyzing managers, their profit, and the way they control women's careers'.

Any Gazette readers in Zagreb still have time to find out for themselves at the ZagrebDox documentary festival, where Posao snova premieres tomorrow afternoon. Otherwise, Majstorović discusses the film in today's Večernji list (which unhelpfully headlines it as 'The film revealing the dark side of narodnjaci).

Says Majstorović:

'Young girls in Bosnia see their models in folk singers and don't know that that likfe isn't always what it looks like at first glance. They come from the village to the city and they have the choice either to be a street vendor on some corner or to try to become a singer. If they're given the opportunity, like the girls in our story are, they'll feel as if all their dreams are coming true.'

There are at least two dozen Magazin auditionees who probably ought to be in the audience, just in case.