Jedinstveno prihvatilište za pse u Evropi, mesto je gde šinteri svakodnevno dovoze pse lutalice uhvaćene na periferiji grada. Prikazujući proces dresure ovih pasa, Prilagođeni, kao film metafore, bavi se društveno aktuelnom temom - potčinjavanjem pojedinca volji autoriteta. Uspostavljajući paralelu između azila za pse i društva, film preispituje hijerarhije moći, kao i relativnost autoriteta koji nas uz pomoć nagrade i kazne čini poslušnima.
A unique shelter for dogs in Europe, it is a place where animal controllers bring stray dogs impounded daily on the outskirts of the city. Showing the process of training these dogs, the film Adjusting, itself a metaphor, deals with a current social issue – the subjugation of the individual to the will of authority. Establishing a parallel between dog shelters and societies, the film re-examines the hierarchies of power, as well as the relativity of any authority that renders us obedient through the exercise of reward and punishment.
Po završetku filma „Isti“, dokumentarca koji smo tokom 2016. godine snimali u nekoliko zatvora u Srbiji, za zaposlene i osuđenike Kazneno-popravnog zavoda u Sremskoj Mitrovici organizovali smo internu projekciju. Tada sam od upravnika zatvora saznao da je nedavno pokrenut projekat koji ima za cilj resocijalizaciju osuđenika putem obuke pasa i da je KPZ u Sremskoj Mitrovici jedini u Evropi u kome postoji prihvatilište za pse. Osećao sam da je u pitanju sjajna priča, ali u tom trenutku nisam želeo da sledeći dokumentarac snimamo u zatvoru ponovo. Ali par dana kasnije, dok sam sedeo na piću sa kolegom Goranom Radovanovićem, ispričao sam mu priču o azilu i psima. Njegova reakcija na licu, dok sam mu prenosio svoje utiske iz prihvatilišta, bila mi je dovoljna da već sutradan pozovem Upravu za izvršenje krivičnih sankcija i zatražim dozvolu za snimanje svog novog filma.
Dresura pasa od strane osuđenika u prihvatilištu za pse delovala mi je kao dobra metafora za prikazivanje društveno aktuelne teme koja nas navodi da se zapitamo ko su zapravo autoriteti čijoj se volji potčinjavamo, prilagođavamo i zašto nekritički prihvatamo vrednosti koje nam oni nameću?
Jer od najranijeg detinjstva pod uticajem smo različitih sistema i autoriteta, od roditelja, nastavnika, šefa, vođe i drugih koji nas prilagođavaju uz pomoć nagrade i kazne i uče kakvo ponašanje je prihvatljivo, kako da postanemo dobar čovek. Osećamo se dobro, kada smo nagrađeni i po automatizmu, nastavljamo da radimo i govorimo ono što drugi žele. Udovoljavamo očekivanjima drugih i postajemo upravo onakvi kakvi su i svi drugi i kakvi po njihovom očekivanju, treba da budemo. Postajemo automati, živeći u obmani da smo pojedinci koji poseduju vlastitu volju, slobodu.
Prilagođeni je opservacijski dokumentarac o potčinjavanju volji drugoga, relativnosti autoriteta, nagradi i kazni, odbacivanju i prihvatanju, o empatiji i prijateljstvu između dva bića – životinje i čoveka koji dolaze sa margine i dele sličnu sudbinu.
After the completion of The Same, a documentary that we made in 2016, in several prisons in Serbia, we organised an internal screening for the employees and convicts of the Penal Correctional Facility in Sremska Mitrovica. It was then that I learned from the warden about this project, launched not long before, which had the aim to resocialise convicts through dog training, and also that the Penal Correctional Facility in Sremska Mitrovica was the only one in Europe which housed a shelter for dogs. I felt it was a great story, but at that point I didn’t want to make my next documentary in prison again. However, a few days later, while having a drink with my colleague Goran Radovanović, I told him the story of the shelter and the dogs. The reaction on his face, while I was telling him my impressions from the shelter, was enough for me to decide to call the Administration for the Enforcement of Penal Sanctions the next day and ask for permission to shoot my new film.
Dog training by convicts in a dog shelter inside the prison seemed to me to be a good metaphor for presenting a current social issue that leads us to ask ourselves: Who are the authorities whose will we conform and adjust to, and why do we uncritically accept the values they impose on us?
We tend to conform because we are under the influence of different systems and authorities from earliest childhood, from parents, teachers, bosses and leaders to other agencies who adjust us through the exercise of reward and punishment, teaching us what behaviour is acceptable in order that we become good persons. We feel good when we are rewarded, and, as if automatically, we continue to do and say what others expect us to. We meet the expectations of others and become exactly as they are – and as we, according to their expectations, should be. We become automatons, living in the delusion that we are individuals who possess their own will and freedom.
Adjusting is an observational documentary about submission to the will of others, the relativity of any authority, reward and punishment, rejection and acceptance, and about empathy and friendship between two beings – an animal and a human who both come from the margins and share a similar destiny.