45 CIFF: Loss, Despair, Fragmentation in 'When the Phone Rang'

On Saturday, "When the Phone Rang" film was screened at the 45 Cairo International Film Festival's International Competition.

The film is written and directed by Iva Radivojević and is based on Radivojević’s personal experience of leaving her country Yugoslavia in the 1990s as wars tore the country apart.

The main motive of the events is the film's protagonist Lana's traumatic experience of receiving a phone call carrying heavy news. The first scene of the phone ringing was the news of her grandfather's death, and several experiences were motivated by the phone calls including successive immigration from one place to another, losing contact with friends, and an emotional call from her grandmother for the final time.

The director masters using 1990s-influenced color palettes, camera shots for the wall clock, and major hits to engage the audience with the filmmaker's experience. 

The feature depends on reflecting the psyche of Lana, and her fragmented identity that is scattered in each home she lives in like her videotapes, cassette tapes, musical notes, and musical sheets. In addition, the feature sheds light on another meaning of diaspora, but within the lands, not outside. 

One of the most repeated words during the film is the country is gone due to wars. Yugoslavia was torn into various states and Yugoslavia as an entity no longer exists. The film closes with Lana alone losing everyone, death is not the only way to detach people, but tearing the country apart, causing the family to be separated.