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DOES IT HURT?
2006

Does it hurt? is a mockumentary shot according to the dogma rules and it is based on real events and characters situated in the heart of the Balkans, Macedonia.

Aneta, a Macedonian Filmmaker, who lives and works in Holland, comes up with the idea to make the first official Balkan dogma film in Macedonia on the 10th anniversary of the Dogma 95 Manifesto. She tricks the Zentropa producers into believing that she got a story ready and the financial support from the Macedonian Ministry to make the first Balkan Dogma film in order to get their letter of intent.

The mockumentary starts from the moment that Aneta gathers four of her closest friends and shows them the letter of intent that she got from Zentropa and asks them to join her in the quest for finding the right story for the filmmaking them believe that Zentropa will finance the film if they come up with a good story. She has decided to film the whole process from the very beginning and use it later for the making off.

Throughout the whole film she is behind the camera and we never see her. She is following the four characters in their quest to find the best story for the dogma film and we discover Macedonia and the Balkans anno 2005. Aneta’s camera captures visual sequences of a land and people in transition. The making off project becomes ultimately the true subject of the film which turns up to be a modern story about the urban life of young people on the Balkans, their fears, hopes and dreams. Due to unpredictable circumstances Aneta fails to make the Dogma, but just when it seems that all is lost a light shows at the end of the tunnel.

What was meant to be the First Balkan becomes the last Dogma film.



ANETA LESNIKOVSKA
After finishing her third year at the University of Kiril and Metodij in her hometown Skopje in Macedonia (department History of Art and Archaeology), in 1992 Aneta Lesnikovska goes to Holland and is accepted at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, department audiovisual art. In 1995 she is accepted as an exchange student
at the Cooper Union, department film and video, in New York. Short after her graduation in 1997 she gets actively involved in the European art scene, having numerous expositions of her video and new media installations. Among others her work was exposed in Skopje, Dubrovnik, Belgrade, Budapest, Amsterdam and New York. Most recently her project Confession room was exposed in the Stedelijk museum in Amsterdam and The PAC Multimedia center in Skopje.

After focusing on developing her writing and film directing skills she was accepted as one of the 9 participants at the Master class “The Future of the small screen” at the Rotterdam Film Festival 2002.

In the last few years she has been actively involved in several major film projects in Macedonia:

How I killed a saint 2003 - feature film - casting director for the Macedonian/ French/ Slovenian/ co-production (director Teona Strugar; DOP Alan Marcoen -“Roseta”)

Le Livre Secret 2003 - feature film - line producer for the French/Macedonian co-production (director V. Cvetanovski; DOP Thierry Arbogast -“The fifth element”, “Nikita”)

Journey to Europe 2002 - Line producer for the Ghanian/Dutch/Macedonian co-production (Director Ashong Katai, DOP David Dointoh)

Dust 2001, feature film - casting director for the Macedonian/English/German co-production (director M. Manchevski (“Before the rain” Golden Lion ‘95); DOP Barry Ackroyd -“Raining stones”)

The First Balkan Dogma is her first feature film. She is a founder of AKA films, Macedonia.
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