Almin Kaplan, Pjer Žalica

When The Ground Shakes

Secrets from the past and forbidden loves shake the inhabitants, both dead and living, of a small isolated place. A young imam and his wife try to calm them in hopes of preserving their own family.

SYNOPSIS

Young imam MUAMER and his wife NERMA are a couple with a problem. Nerma sees a better future in moving to Germany, while Muamer does not want to leave his homeland. In a deeply divided and backward society, they perform the ritual washing of deceased Muslims. One day, the body of the elderly HAJRA, who threw herself into a cistern, is brought to them. The community views her suicide with suspicion, but thanks to Muamer, the retrograde village imam agrees to bury the woman who could not bear the burden of past mistakes that estranged her two sons and reconciles the feuding brothers. A new body arrives – Nerma's friend MAJDA. She died from untreated breast cancer. Nerma, with Majda's sister ADISA, who comes from Germany, wants to uncover why this happened. Their investigation leads them to Majda's husband KANE. An oddball prone to conspiracy theories and mysticism, he wants to cremate his wife's body instead of burying it according to Islamic customs. Nerma and Adisa prevent him, and the police detain Kane on suspicion that he led the sick Majda to quack doctors instead of getting chemo. Nerma's desire to leave grows stronger, but so does Muamer's resolve to stay. Adisa helps Nerma in her plan to leave the country with their son, against Muamer's wishes. Everything is ready for the escape when the village is struck by the news of the death of young Refa, the son of Muamer's best friend HASAN. The young man overdosed because of a forbidden love affair in the villa of a local Croatian magnate whose daughter he was in love with. Ethnic exclusivity led the young man to his death, and it makes Nerma reconsider leaving her husband and home at such a moment. While Muamer prepares the body of his best friend's son for burial, Nerma sits on the bed next to a half-packed suitcase.

CREATORS/WRITERS
Almin Kaplan
Pjer Žalica

DIRECTOR
Pjer Žalica

PRODUCER
Aida Huseinović

PRODUCTION COMPANY
BlackLAB

COUNTRY
Bosnia and Herzegovina

FORMAT
50’ x 6

GENRE
Drama

Almin Kaplan

ALMIN KAPLAN, poet and prose writer from Bosnia and Herzegovina, was born in Mostar in 1985. He has published in many literary magazines from the country and the region. He is one of the founders of the literature and culture portal Pages, where he also used to work as an editor. In addition to writing, he also edits books at the Buybook publishing house. He is a member of the PEN Centre and the Association of Writers of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is the author of the poetry collections Bieber's Daughter, Waiting for the Horn Concert, Measles (novel in verse), Mostar Collection, and Bukara; the novels Tearing, Meho, and Rustle; Stories from Dubrave (stories), House People (diary entries), and Conversations with Marko (book of conversations). He has written the screenplay for the feature film PEOPLE ON THE MOON (in pre-production). He has won several literary awards, including Mak Dizdar (2008), the Ratković’s Poetry Evenings Award (2012), Nijaz Slipičević (2017), WHF award (2018), Zija Dizdarević (2018), Edo Budiša (2021), Kočić's Feather (2022), and Skender Kulenović (2023). He lives in the countryside near Stolac.

Pjer Zalica

PJER ŽALICA was born in Sarajevo in 1964. He studied comparative literature and philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo and graduated in directing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo. He specialized in film scenarios and production at The Imaginary Academy in Grožnjan/Motovun. He is a scriptwriter, director, editor, and producer of feature films, shorts, and documentaries, as well as the author and director of numerous TV shows, series, documentaries, adverts, music videos, and various TV formats. He has also directed in theatre. A professor of directing and scriptwriting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo, he served as Vice Dean and Dean for two terms. He has lectured at colleges in Bosnia and abroad, including Stanford University (USA) and the Faculty of Performing Arts in Ljubljana. He has been a member and chairman of juries at numerous international film and theatre festivals and has conducted many lectures and workshops both in Bosnia and abroad. He has been a lecturer at the Talent Campus of the Sarajevo Film Festival and the "My First Script" program at the Zagreb Film Festival. He is a member of the European Film Academy. His films have been screened at Cannes, Toronto, Locarno, London, and Tribeca NYC, and have won over fifty prestigious awards, including the EFA Discovery Prix Fassbinder – Special Mention; EFA Annual Award for Best Documentary; Silver Leopard at Locarno IFF; Best Feature Film & Audience Award at Sarajevo FF; Golden Star at Marrakech IFF; Best Feature Film at Raindance FF; Audience Award at Bratislava IFF; Golden Palm & Best Screenplay at Valencia IFF; and the Warsaw Grand Prix.

CREATORS’ STATEMENT

It seems we have forgotten the ordinary person and their ordinary problems, which are the essence of life. Today, we mostly deal with “big” things, neglecting the less visible but more important ones. This series focuses precisely on that, making it both timely and urgent. Never has there been a greater need to create a series about a young married couple contemplating whether to move abroad or stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Alongside this main story are all the arguments for leaving the country and those for staying. The main issue for the ordinary person (and the ordinary person is the vast majority) is existence, or rather the lack of comfort. The inability to get a loan, the divisions preventing us from loving each other, and the misunderstanding of life by religious authorities are just some of the themes of this series. The project's uniqueness lies in telling the story through the eyes of a young imam, an objective person who understands and feels the needs of the community beyond the rules. One of the leading problems causing people to leave this country is the lack of tolerance and basic understanding. In this series, the tolerant one is the least expected, giving hope for a better tomorrow, the hope that things can change, and that this society can and should be better. Life is unstoppable because it is, in itself, nature. If people are allowed to live peacefully, we have done a lot. As the theme is so ordinary, yet so exceptional, in terms of action and meaning, the directorial approach will reflect this. We will treat the theme with serious dramatic storytelling but unpretentiously. With a targeted ease in framing, where the perfect frame is less important than the character. In such unpretentious yet dramatic character portrayal, the acting becomes the basis of aesthetics, and the artistic goal is to depict people and their fates, who are so ordinary yet so exceptional. We believe that people will love this series because it is a story about us, not an imagined us, but about who we really are. We, who struggle with problems the developed world has forgotten exist, and we, who often shine like diamonds in that mud.

Aida Huseinovic

AIDA HUSEINOVIĆ was born in 1971 in Sarajevo. She graduated in Production and Management at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo. Since 1995, she has worked in the production department at SAGA, Internews, Refresh Productions, and Forum Association, where she edited and produced several feature and documentary films, short films, TV documentaries, and promo series that won numerous international awards. Since 2022, she has been the co-founder and CEO of BlackLAB Production Sarajevo. Her recent film MAY LABOR DAY (2022) by Pjer Žalica, among other awards, won the Warsaw Grand Prix at the 38th WFF and the Audience Award at the 33rd LIFFE in Ljubljana. Two new projects are in pre-production: the TV series WHEN THE GROUND SHAKES and the feature film PEOPLE ON THE MOON, written by Almin Kaplan and Pjer Žalica.

Production company profile

With thirty years of professional experience, the founders of BLACKLAB have worked on or produced dozens of artistic, film, and TV projects in various roles and at all stages of the creative process, production, promotion, and placement. The goals of the newly established company are the development of independent cultural and artistic expression, the inclusion of young and well-known artists in the creation of new circumstances on the art scene; and to be a creative platform for young, as well as already proven, film, theater, and other creators and experts from the field of cultural and creative industries.

blacklab.doo@gmail.com

Where are we at?

ESTIMATED PRODUCTION BUDGET FOR THE FIRST SEASON
1.360.000 €

Production timeline

JUNE 2023 - FEBRUARY 2025
Development

FEBRUARY - SEPTEMBER 2025
Pre-production

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2025
Shooting

SUMMER 2026
End of post-production

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