Happily Ever After

  • 83'
  • Croatia
  • 2014
'All I want is a calm, good life with a man I love!' filmmaker Tatjana Božic exclaims desperately after the umpteenth relationship crisis. She just can’t hold down a lengthy relationship for some reason. What is wrong with her? Her love resumé reads like a travelogue through European culture: Božic went from the romantic Russian soul of Pavel via the German weltschmerz of Frank and the British reliability of Jacob to the Dutch level-headedness of Rogier.
In an ultimate attempt to keep the last man - with whom she has a child - Božic faces up to her exes, and above all to herself. In archive footage, family films and old photos, Božic relives her youth and her relationships. She films everything as she sees her old lovers again, even the intimate and occasionally painful conversations that follow. Božic is just as uncompromising when she registers the many quarrels with her present husband. Of course many people have advice for her: 'The problem is in your head, not in your men,' or: 'Keep silent and suffer if you want to keep your marriage.'
Happily Ever After is an open-hearted self-portrait of a woman stuck between the urge for freedom and the conventional ideal of true love, marriage and a ‘happily ever after'. Intimate street portraits of random women throughout Europe give this personal document a universal feel.

Director
Tatjana Božic
Premiere
World premiere
Countries of production
Croatia, Netherlands
Year
2014
Festival Edition
IFFR 2014
Length
83'
Medium
DCP
Languages
Dutch, Croatian, Russian, English
Producers
Boudewijn Koole, Iris Lammertsma
Production Company
Witfilm
Sales
Witfilm
Screenplay
Tatjana Božic, Alex Goekjian
Cinematography
Ton Peters
Editor
Boudewijn Koole
Sound Design
Jeroen Goeijers
Music
Alex Simu
Local Distributor
Cinéart Netherlands
Director
Tatjana Božic
Premiere
World premiere
Countries of production
Croatia, Netherlands
Year
2014
Festival Edition
IFFR 2014
Length
83'
Medium
DCP
Languages
Dutch, Croatian, Russian, English
Producers
Boudewijn Koole, Iris Lammertsma
Production Company
Witfilm
Sales
Witfilm
Screenplay
Tatjana Božic, Alex Goekjian
Cinematography
Ton Peters
Editor
Boudewijn Koole
Sound Design
Jeroen Goeijers
Music
Alex Simu
Local Distributor
Cinéart Netherlands