TIFF Interview: How Aleksandar Radivojevic & Jelena Djokic Blended Horror, Humor, and Humanity in KARMADONNA

Image courtesy of TIFF

By Shannon McGrew

In KARMADONNA, Yelena is joyfully expecting her first child, with only 37 days to go, when she answers an unknown call. On the other end of the line, a chilling voice delivers an impossible ultimatum: obey his gruesome demands or watch her unborn baby die. At first, she questions whether the caller is real or a figment of her unraveling mind, but the eerie, supernatural proof he provides leaves no doubt - he had power over her in ways she cannot comprehend. 

Forced into a brutal game of cat and mouse, Yelena, unprepared for violence but desperate to protect her child, must navigate a bloody odyssey of murder, chaos, and fear. As the body count rises, so do the stakes, and with every step, she is drawn deeper into a nightmare where survival means becoming something monstrous herself. 

For the World Premiere of KARMADONNA, Creepy Kingdom’s Shannon McGrew spoke with Aleksandar Radivojevic (co-writer of A Serbian Film) and actor Jelena Djokic, who plays Yelena. During their chat, they discussed everything from breaking societal ‘bubbles’ to navigating horror, humor, and the fears of motherhood.

Thank you both so much for speaking with me today. Congrats on your first feature film, Aleksandar. Can you start by telling us what inspired the story?

Aleksandar Radivojevic: Many things. It’s a film about the present moment in society. A present moment in humanity. It’s all broken through two persons, Yelena and the voice that’s talking. We as individuals form bubbles to protect ourselves from reality. This film explores what happens when the bubble bursts, thrusting the individual into a hostile world forced to communicate with it and confront it. We’re all in our little bubbles. We are all little bubbles of social media. We protect ourselves from actually communicating, and this [movie] is what happens when you burst through the bubble and communicate with the hostile world.

Jelena, how was it stepping into this role and navigating the physical challenges your character goes through?

Jelena Djokic: I was very excited about everything. Aleksandar wrote this for me, and there was a lot of trust and understanding between us. Whatever he wanted from me in that particular scene, I wanted to give him more in return to satisfy myself. It was very interesting. That is a role that actors wish for, and I feel very blessed. 

One of the things I loved about this movie was the contrast between Yelena and Bane, played by Milos Lolic. What was the process of bringing Milos on for this role?

Aleksandar Radivojevic: Milos is one of the most famous theater directors in Europe and is actually not an actor but a friend of mine who is an amazing actor. I had a vision and inspiration for him to play this role, and he knocked it out of the park with an incredibly nuanced performance. The characters of Yelena and Bane are actually central to this film. Those are characters who are engulfed by their naivety that they can navigate through this hostile world successfully and protect themselves from it, but then the bubble bursts, and they’re put through the entire blender. 

Image courtesy of TIFF

Whether it was technical or performance-related, which scene was the toughest to pull off?

Jelena Djokic: What was difficult was that it was very, very cold, but I was the only one in the whole crew that didn’t catch the flu or a cold [Laughs]. My adrenaline saved me. 

Aleksandar Radivojevic: It was extremely cold.  The scene by the river with the shooting, and Jelena soldiered through it, and we all thought she was going to get pneumonia or something [Laughs]. But instead, we all got sick. Jelena’s character is, in a way, a female reflection of John McClane from Die Hard, as she’s put through the ringer, totally unprepared.

Jelena, how do you approach preparing for a role of this intensity? What helps you make that shift into character when it’s time to begin?

Jelena Djokic: You must approach it with 100% no fear at all. Because we know each other, I felt very safe. 

Aleksandar Radivojevic: She deeply knows what this film is about, so she understands it immensely. It was natural for her to navigate the entire process through these challenging setups and situations. It’s like an acting trance where you break through reality.

Jelena Djokic: When you’re an actress, you like those things. When something is boring, you can’t make a pie with s**t. When you have a script like this, you immediately feel blessed. 

The film weaves together horror, humor, and action. How did you approach balancing those tones so that none dominated the others?

Aleksandar Radivojevic: It’s not like I wanted to blend all those things. It just came naturally through the story. The ideas guide you through the entire process. If you know what you’ve written, you have a particular visual idea of how to do it, and you always hope it’s going to stick. There are instances when you f**k up. You don’t see certain things, and then you don’t know how to avoid them. 

The film is very personal. The material is something I feel very deeply about. It’s almost natural to navigate it. I always like to mix violence and humor, the divine and the filthy; I love those little juxtapositions. I love those contrasts. That’s what life is about. I’ve been watching films all my life, and I know things I love and what I don’t, so I try to avoid those. 

When audiences leave the theater, what’s the one thing you hope stays with them?

Aleksandar Radivojevic: Sometimes it’s not bad to burst your bubble and go into confrontation. It may lead you to an epiphany. It may also backfire, but it could lead you to change. Stop shielding yourself from the negativity surrounding you and dive into it. You might discover a better solution than you initially anticipated. 

Jelena Djokic: For me, the film is a metaphor for all the fears pregnant women go through during their pregnancy and feeling responsible for the child that she’s bringing into this world, and especially these days when we are so aware of how evil is present and has gained such legitimacy that every kind of resistance immediately seems futile. Then again, mothers are still having their babies and fighting for their loved ones, and for me, that is the proof of unconditional love. And to quote the very end of the movie, children are gods in their mother’s eyes. That's why I think our film is so gentle, kind, and loving. 

Aleksandar Radivojevic: Yes, it just goes to extreme lengths to show [Laughs]. 

Jelena Djokic: That is why I’m in this movie and why he’s the director [Laughs]. 

KARMADONNA had its World Premiere at TIFF as part of the Midnight Madness block.