Danis Tanović has started shooting his ninth film on 3 May 2021. A Ten in a Half is a Bosnian coproduction supported through the feature film production scheme Sarajevo City of Film for Global Screen, launched by the Sarajevo Film Festival and the Turkish Radio Television in 2016.
The title of the film A Ten in a Half refers to the way the famous Sarajevan dish ćevapi is served – 10 pieces of ćevap (a kind of grilled minced meat) in a half of somun (a traditional bread). “Everything in Sarajevo may be ridiculed and made a subject of a joke, except for the one subject: where are the best ćevapi in Sarajevo?”, commented Tanović.
Following this idea,Tanović developed together with Nikola Kuprešanin a story about two Sarajevan ćevap-makers, friends and antipodes who clash over the quality of ćevaps in their shops. In the pandemic-stricken Sarajevo, through their everyday feuds, they are actually questioning life decisions and accepting inevitable changes.
The cast includes Branko Đurić and Izudin Bajrović, with whom Tanović worked on previous films, and young actors Kerim Čutuna and Helena Vuković, as well as many known faces, but plenty of newcomers, too.
The film is produced by Mirsad Purivatra, Amra Bakšić Čamo and Jovan Marjanović under the umbrella of Sarajevo City of Film for Global Screen, a joint project of the Obala Art Center, the Sarajevo Film Festival and the Turkish Radio Television (TRT).
Two films have already been produced this way – Martin Turk’sGood Days Work (2018) and Pjer Žalica’s, Focus, Grandma (2020), Film New Europe writes.