11/03/2025 - The director and lead actor talk about authentically portraying a personal story, creating an emotional connection through music and cultivating a strong visual style

At SXSW, Thea Gajić makes her feature debut with Surviving Earth [+see also:
film review
interview: Thea Gajić, Slavko Sobin
film profile], based on an extraordinarily personal familial story about her father, Vlad, played in the film by Croatian actor Slavko Sobin. We spoke to the pair about capturing Vlad – a Serbian immigrant to the UK, a former addict and an avid member of a Balkan band – on film and the most important elements in this process.

Cineuropa: The film is described as being based on a true story. Which parts were the most important for you to emphasise?
Thea Gajiċ: It’s about my dad, and it was important to share his story with a wider audience. It covers a lot of themes that all of us experience – or which have been experienced by someone we know. It was important for me to break down the stereotypes of addiction and humanise people. It was also important to put Serbian culture on screen. It's not something that I see from this side of the world. It was vital for me to pay homage to my father and where I'm from and, in turn, learn more about that part of me.

Did you have any particular conversations together in order to properly pay homage?
TG: I wanted to get his energy across. “Passion” is a word we often use when we describe him – his restlessness. He’s someone who’s fled a war, has been displaced and has had to find a home in a new country. What do all of those things do to a person? Why does he always have to keep moving? Is it the addiction? I think the physicality in terms of the characterisation was super important. We spoke about that energy inherent in always being on the go, always moving forward, which I think Slavko conveyed really well.

Slavko Sobin: As an actor, you crave a part like this. He’s so flawed on so many levels, but he’s a beautiful human being. When I read the script, I had so many questions. Why is he so self-destructive? He has a daughter who adores him, and friends and people around him. Then you get into that loneliness that we all have and feel. The whole script was an embodiment of human insecurities and struggles with accepting yourself. As an actor, you get a character, and you learn to love all of his flaws. But as a human being, you can’t accept your own flaws. This was a story that was clearly one of healing.

One of the elements that bring joy to Vlad is the Balkan music and his attachment to his harmonica.
TG: We based a lot of the original music in the film on the real band’s original music. It has new members now, but there are still some members who did play with Vlad, so we worked with them to recreate the music for the film. I had rewritten the lyrics before they were translated into Serbian. It was important that the audience could also use the songs as diary entries or as a deeper way of understanding his headspace.

Were there any things that you were thinking about in terms of accent and the Serbian/Serbo-Croatian language in order to capture the regional nuances?
SS: I saw a couple of videos of Vlad where I heard the way he speaks. There was a Serbian accent, and obviously, he was a musician, so he had a good ear. Mine came from mostly imitating the way he spoke. I’m Croatian, but I clearly also speak Serbian.

TG: We were also discussing a Belgrade accent.

SS: I’m pretty sure Vlad was convinced his British accent was spot on. I tried to do the best British accent I could.

TG: I only understand small bits [of Serbian], so it was hard for me to be able to tune into accent differences. I relied on these guys to guide me. I trusted them, especially with all of the Serbian scenes. We would discuss things afterwards together, also because words mean different things in different languages. We had a big discussion about the word “political” and what that meant in Serbian versus what it meant in English. It means something slightly heavier in Serbian.

For the visual style, you use a lot of green and grey tones, but you also have some warm lights.
TG: Very early on, we knew that we wanted to lean more into a rich tone. We made sure that everyone had that in mind by the time we got to the [colour] grading and we knew we wanted to lean further into it. One of our mottos on set was, “Is it French enough?” […] We also made rules during prep – we didn’t do any over-the-shoulder shots of Vlad. Everything is very clean. [DoP] Olan Collardy and I were also very against extra coverage that we didn’t need.