'Housekeeping for Beginners': Goran Stolevski on showing present day Macedonia in a way that's not 'exotic'

There's always a level of complexity when it comes to exploring family dynamics. In Goran Stolevski Housekeeping for Beginners (now in theatres), the filmmaker embraces the intricacies of family, in this case a "found family," with layers of emotion and humour, and a palpable sense of honesty.

Dita (Anamaria Marinca) isn't someone who dreamed about being a mother, but when her girlfriend Suada (Alina Serban) is diagnosed with cancer, Dita has to take care of Suada's two children, the young "troublemaker" Mia (Dzada Selim) and teenager Vanesa (Mia Mustafi). Dita's home has a sort of open door policy for people to stay, including Toni (Vladimir Tintor) and his boyfriend Ali (Samson Selim).

As Suada becomes increasingly concerned about her treatment options and how she's being treated by doctors, because she's Roma, Suada wants Dita to adopt her daughters and give them her surname, in the hopes that they won't face the same discrimination in North Macedonian society. Ultimately, everyone in this family will do what they need to do to protect each other.

For Stolevski, the writer-director crafted Housekeeping for Beginners at a point in his career when he couldn't seem to get his movies made.

"It was at a point in life where I wasn't able to get people to make my films, so I had to constantly keep writing new ones, just to kind of keep my brain occupied," Stolevski told Yahoo Canada. "I saw a photo of a friend from his youth in Melbourne in the 1970s, when he first moved there, into a house with his boyfriend and eight gay women, and it was like a random day in their life."

"I was like, this looks like a fun space ... for me as a filmmaker, but also for a viewer, to hang out in and explore."

'It's always strange that I don't see that on screen as a reality'

Stolevski made some changes for Housekeeping for Beginners, including setting the film in North Macedonia, making it a multigenerational story and having the film take place in present day.

"The fact that this was a present day story was a lot more interesting to me, and the fact that it was in Macedonia," Stolevski said. "I rarely see Albanian women as the main character in a Macedonian produced film, and it's not like a generic person, it's still a very specific human being, that just happens to belong to all these other demographics, that are also shaping their life."

"There's very few glimpses of Macedonia, or really a lot of its neighbouring countries, that get seen by the rest of the world. So all of them are very anonymous, all the people who live there. ... I really wanted something present day so we're not always something that's exotic and esoteric. I really wanted something present day and relatable and kind of ordinary, or extraordinary within an ordinary context."

Similarly, when it comes to the inclusion of Roma characters in the film, Stolevski stressed that he finds it "strange" that filmmakers don't seem to have an "interest" in telling stories of people from the Roma background.

"With all the films that I make, I kind of want it to feel like it's a document of a particular time and place, in that particular moment, and as complete a document as possible," Stolevski said.

"Where I grew up in Macedonia, I didn't grow up in the capital, so in my class of like 36 kids in elementary school, nine of them, so a full quarter, were Roma. This isn't something I ever thought about, it was just my day-to-day life, ... even outside of school. ... It's always strange that I don't see that on screen as a reality."

'Why is the viewer meant to keep watching?'

There's also something particularly appealing that Stolevski did for Housekeeping for Beginners, which was really lean into the flaws of his characters. Not shying away from showing characters who maybe don't have the most ideal reactions to situations.

The filmmaker stressed that when he reads books or watches films, he's always drawn to characters that are described as "unlikable."

"I think that the person who doesn't have borders of conventionality around them, I think that story might be more interesting," Stolevski said.

Ultimately, Stolevski's approach to filmmaking is not being trapped in what the "expected" outcome or response will be from his characters.

"I think, if you're writing the easy or expected response, then what's the point of the story?" Stolevski stressed. "Why is the viewer meant to keep watching?"

"I think for a story or any piece of art, to justify its existence and justify two hours of one's life, it needs to be about the things we don't expect, but also speak to how we are, as human beings. When there's parts of the story I'm telling that I think, because the nature of how the characters are, ... that would happen in a way that's expected, I just take out their scenes, because you can just assume things have taken place in that case. You don't need to force someone to sit through that. ... Not everyone's reality is dynamic and exciting, obviously, but you can make it be that."