Marija Perović is the first internationally renowned woman film and TV director from Montenegro. Her film debut Packing the Monkeys, Again (2004) was the first film to be shot in Montenegro after a 12 year break. Her second feature film Look at Me was the most popular film in cinemas around Montenegro in 2009.

"Making films is difficult everywhere and at the same time not difficult anywhere because it is the sort of work you love," Marija Perović told Southeast Europe: People and Culture. She also works as Assistant Professor with the department of film and television direction at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Cetinje.

In January this year, her film Look at Me came out on DVD which, according to Marija Perović, is an uphill struggle because it was the first time that a local film came out in this format since Montenegro's independence in 2006. The film won her the first prize at the international festival in Alexandria (Egypt) and she also won a Bronze Mimosa for direction at the International Film Festival at Herceg Novi (Montenegro).

"Awards are valuable because somehow they are recognition of the quality of a film, but also because it is something that goes down on a film’s “CV”. They are also greatly important even in an academic career because I believe that we, as university teachers, should also produce works of art and each one of them is like a small doctorate," said the director.

Perović spent the first five months of 2010 in Austin in the United States as a visiting professor at the University of Texas. She says that the time she spent there was extremely valuable "mainly in view of things related to distribution, production and marketing of films."

Her two films, Packing the Monkeys, Again and Look at Me were shown at the University of Austin. "I was already enamoured with American film and they fell in love with my films. I got a lot of encouragement and confirmation from what I discovered about American independent production and the desire the Americans have for new knowledge and new encounters. We learned from each other," said Marija Perović.

She is already thinking about her new project and says that things in Montenegro are changing for the better. As an example of this, she tells that there are currently four feature films, shot in 2010, which are already in the post-production phase. "I thank all of those who gave their support. I thank them for the enthusiasm and I thank the Faculty of Dramatic Arts for existing because it is actively engaged in making this language and this profession necessary," says the director.

"Right now I am about to make a decision to put together the life stories of three women, very much linked to my generation. I expect a lot from this idea and from the cooperation with people in Montenegro but also from people in the region and further afield," says Marija Perović.