MONIKA DUJKA BUKOVJANOVÁ: THE ART OF NOTICING WHAT OTHERS MISS
Bringing an analytical eye and a distinctly human perspective to CALIBRATION.
CREWCOLLABORATORSPRODUCTION
10/25/2026
Prague, rain, and a glimpse of 2040
Monika recently joined members of the CALIBRATION team for a dystopian protest march through Prague, bringing elements of the film's fictional world into public view.
Despite heavy rain, the event attracted considerable curiosity from passersby.
Monika was particularly impressed by the participants' elaborate dystopian outfits.
“I think the Art and Make-Up Departments will have to work hard to keep up with the march participants and their outfits!”
It was an early opportunity to see the film's visual identity begin to take shape beyond the screenplay.
The invisible work behind the image
Script supervision is one of cinema's least visible disciplines. When performed well, the audience rarely notices it.
But in CALIBRATION, where silence carries meaning and emotional shifts may be almost imperceptible, that invisible work becomes fundamental to the storytelling.
Monika's combination of sociological insight, documentary experience and analytical precision makes her contribution particularly relevant to the film's approach.
After all, some of cinema's most unsettling moments are not defined by what happens.
They are defined by what changes — almost without us noticing.
ABOUT CALIBRATION
CALIBRATION is an independent, near-future psychological drama directed by Serani Hunyi. Set in 2040, the film explores trauma, institutional power, human identity, and the increasingly blurred boundaries between treatment and control.
MONIKA DUJKA BUKOVJANOVÁ: THE ART OF NOTICING WHAT OTHERS MISS
From sociology and human rights documentaries to the meticulous world of script supervision, Monika Dujka Bukovjanová brings an analytical eye and a distinctly human perspective to CALIBRATION.
In a film where a hesitation, a glance or a moment of silence can carry more weight than dialogue, continuity becomes something far more complex than ensuring that objects remain in the same position between takes.
For Monika Dujka Bukovjanová, Script Supervisor on Serani Hunyi’s upcoming psychological dystopian drama CALIBRATION, it means understanding the emotional architecture of a story — and protecting it, moment by moment.
From sociology to cinema
Monika’s journey into filmmaking began not on a film set, but in the world of sociology, social policy and human rights.
At 18, she began volunteering at One World, the international human rights documentary film festival organised by People in Need in Prague. She later worked with the festival, developing a fascination with documentary filmmaking and its relationship to the social sciences.
Her academic background shaped the way she approaches storytelling. For Monika, the subject of a film is not necessarily what makes it important. What matters is the intelligence and integrity with which that subject is explored.
During the COVID pandemic, Monika attended a course on film language, an experience that deepened her interest in filmmaking and eventually led her towards more practical production roles.
She discovered that script supervision offered an unexpected connection to her earlier career.
“In sociology, I was always a data analyst; in script supervising, I like to say I am a film analyst.”
When personal experience becomes cinema
In 2022, Monika directed Poprvé (For the First Time), a documentary exploring women's experiences of gynaecological examinations — a subject frequently surrounded by fear, silence and discomfort.
The film grew from her own anxiety about undergoing such examinations, an experience she began to understand differently while studying the social and institutional dimensions of women's healthcare.
Conversations with other women revealed how widespread these fears could be, and how frequently traumatic experiences remained unspoken.
Making the documentary also confronted Monika with the personal cost of revealing one's own vulnerabilities.
“Above all, this taught me that telling one’s own personal story is not a simple matter,” she reflects.
It is an experience that lends particular resonance to her involvement in CALIBRATION, a film concerned with psychological vulnerability, personal autonomy, and the complicated relationship between individuals and the institutions they trust.
The smallest details tell the biggest stories
Set in Prague in 2040, CALIBRATION follows Freya, a neurodivergent woman struggling with severe psychological trauma, as she confronts difficult questions about recovery, identity and the price of emotional relief.
The film favours restrained performances, controlled compositions and an atmosphere in which the smallest changes in behaviour can become significant.
For a script supervisor, this creates a demanding responsibility.
“When a film works with restraint, the smallest things become the language of the story: a glance held a second longer, a hand that hesitates, a pause before a line.”
Monika explains that continuity must extend beyond costumes, props and dialogue to include the subtle emotional progression of each performance.
“In Calibration even a tiny inconsistency can change what a moment means.”
Her approach combines the precision of an analyst with the sensitivity of a filmmaker. Every scene must work individually, but it must also belong to the psychological progression of the film as a whole.
A different perspective on whose stories are told
One of the elements that attracted Monika to CALIBRATION was its portrayal of a married lesbian couple, with a neurodivergent woman at the centre of the narrative.
She welcomed the opportunity to work on a story that moves beyond conventional relationship dynamics and familiar cinematic stereotypes.
But it was the film's underlying question that resonated most strongly.
“What are we willing to sacrifice to stop the pain?”
For Monika, it is a question with universal relevance, one that invites audiences to examine their own relationship with suffering, relief and personal choice.
“It is the kind of film that makes you think.”
Building a different kind of film set
CALIBRATION is being produced in Prague by an international, all-female crew — a deliberate production choice by director Serani Hunyi.
For Monika, the significance of this decision extends beyond representation.
She points to the persistent underrepresentation of women in the Czech film industry, where demanding working conditions can make sustained careers difficult, even for women who have trained professionally in filmmaking.
Women-led productions, she believes, can contribute to changing those conditions while bringing greater diversity to the stories being told.
On a personal level, the difference is equally meaningful.
“For me personally, it means a greater sense of safety and ease, and in teams made up of women I also usually feel much more support.”
Having directed her own documentary, Monika also understands the importance of respecting another director's creative vision.
She sees filmmaking as a collaborative undertaking in which every department's work affects the others, and where meticulous preparation is an expression of respect for the entire team.
One of the film's digital sets where a pivotal scene takes place
The 2040 Prague Protest March organised by the CALIBRATION female film crew that took place in the pouring rain
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CALIBRATION is produced by Serani Studio (Prague), in association with Bottomline AI (France)
