. “I think that people forgot to worship what they got from their parents, their grandparents, the land that we inherited. Now it’s just about the money. And the quicker we get the money the better.”locks her character, Julija, in a battle of wills with her abusive dad, Ante , a spearfisherman who is trying to sell the family plot. They live on a secluded isle whose beauty has drawn the attention of Javier, a developer scouting locations for a luxury tourist resort.
Filipović, a former professional swimmer who learned how to scuba-dive and wield a harpoon during the shoot, plays Julija with a coolly watchful air, seeing through her father and enabling her mother’s insecurities even as she struggles to see through Javier. It’s a brilliant, layered performance that shows the character’s vulnerability and her strength in confronting her dad. “I mean, you have to be brave to say no to a man like this,” says Filipović.
As the father-daughter conflict escalates and Julija’s thoughts turn to murder, so too does a kind of romantic rivalry with her mum, who sees in Javier her own frustrated dreams of a different life. “She is jealous, because she realises her daughter will do something she was never able to do,” says Filipović. “And in that moment, she realises her daughter is much more mature and braver than she is. But I think that deep down, she’s really happy that her daughter will be able to do this.
In the end, Julija’s determination to forge her own path mirrors the crossroads Croatia finds itself in post-Covid. Her refusal to be defined by others is a trait she shares with Filipović, who moved to Zagreb to study biology and genetics last year. “I don’t like when people put me in boxes. Does that make sense?” she says. “It’s like [some people think] because I went to biology school I must hate acting.