HK: Can you talk about that for a bit? How many systems, or what do you have?

MZ: We are working on PCs, Pentiums.

HK: For ink and paint?

MZ: Right. We have only four computers. Some of the software we developed ourselves. Some of it was stolen. There were sanctions, so nobody cared about the copyrights at that time. But now that the sanctions are over, we have contacted those companies to say, `Okay, we have the hacker's copy of your program, now we want to buy the real one.'

HK: What is their reaction?

MZ: They laugh! Because Yugoslavia is still uncharted territory for most of the Western countries. They don't even consider us, like they do with the copyrights in China or other countries in Southeast Asia. It's such a small market that nobody really caresyet. But once it opens and once we start to build it, of course, they will put their hand on it and get tighter control. So we were treated like smugglers, like rebels, and we became like that, in certain ways. If we couldn't get the right software, we would break through it and get it. As you know, there is a market for that. You can buy it anyplace in the world. For ten dollars you can get software which costs thousands and thousands of dollars. We are neither proud nor ashamed of that, it was just necessity. Now that we are dealing with serious companies, we have become more serious in our business plans. So, we are putting aside those years and this practice, and are building the studio from the ground up.

Sisyphus(1992), a short film directed by Vladimir Stanec.

Tomorrow's Outlook
HK: Are you hopeful for the future? Do you think that soon it will be how it was before the war, or do you think that you still have economic hurdles, supply hurdles?

MZ: I think its going to be very difficult. This year is going to be very tough for us and the next one too. But we wouldn't be here [Annecy] if we didn't believe that the change is possible for the better. That we are capable of persuading people that we can do a quality job. Even though the circumstances, political and economical, are working against us, we hope and believe that we can manage to survive, to build a company, to purposely take one or two steps back, to where we were ten tears ago, in order to gain the ground and start moving forward again.

HK: Is there anything else you want to add?

MZ: I wish that American animation companies would let us Europeans show the American public...that there is stuff which is produced here which is as, or almost as, good as what's produced in the States. And I wish that the monopoly of the huge American corporations in the media industry, is softened a bit. Let us show that we can do something which has an interest for the American public, and not only ask our animators to come over and work. They are not asking for product. They are not asking for anything but just for the plain labor. And I think we can offer more than that. Not just our studio, but Europeans in general. We would like to sell our talents and brains, not only the labor.

HK: Would you be interested, for instance, in doing contract television product, like South Asia? Is that a market that you would look to be interested in?

MZ: Of course we would. We would be very much interested in collaborating, very much interested in providing services. We would appreciate very much to learn from the Americans, because we believe that they are the leaders. They are the best in animation, like in any other media industry. What we wouldn't allow to be done to us is to become a colony of some big corporation. Do you know how long it takes to create an animator? Seven to eight years of hard work. Lots of money and lots of work goes into it. And they, Disney and Warner, they want to get the final product for nothing. That's not fair. But we cannot stop people from living in Paris, or London or even Los Angeles. I cannot blame people for going for their well-being, but it's the system I don't approve of. Our industry is going down the drain because we don't have animators. Big studios took them. We don't have funds to produce anything decent. And of course, you cannot see in European theaters, a European feature film. From your wildest dreams you will never see an animated feature film from Europe playing in theaters in the United States. I guess its the market law of the strongest, made by the strongest for the strongest.