Babajanja

Babajanja is a heartfelt short documentary that borrows horror elements and includes them in the investigation of director Ante Zlatko Stolica’s childhood fear. Stolica’s dreams are being haunted by ‘Janja’, an allusion to the Slavic fairy tale character of Baba Yaga. Stolica traces his fears by digging through his memories, dreams and forgotten horror films and includes his family, relatives and the villagers in his grandmother’s village. Still lifes, horror films and a gloomy soundscape evoke the unease that still disturbs the director, even after Janja’s death.

With this documentary, Stolica paints a picture of otherness, pointing out at the obvious fact that some people do not stand a chance of being accepted for what they are because they don’t fit into the frame of socially dictated perception of ‘normal’.   

This short film has been part of the programme Shorts: Through the Eyes of Others at the Movies that Matter Festival 2023.