The urban heroes from the TV show “Zoki Poki”

Every age brings its own heroes, so in these modern days we have our own modern urban heroes. We were lucky enough to be able to witness the making of a new TV series based on one of the most favourite children’s book, the story of “Zoki Poki” written by the author Olivera Nikolova. The book “Zoki Poki” was first published in 1963, and for more than a half of century, it has been on the mandatory reading list of books for students in primary schools. The book has been translated into many languages: Serbian, Romanian, Ukrainian, Czech, Italian, Slovenian, Turkish, Albanian and German language.

The TV series consists of 10 episodes filled with interesting adventures from everyday life. The TV show is produced by the production “Kino Oko” by the producer Rober Naskov and it was shown on the national TV station MTV.

We had the pleasure to interview some of the characters from the show “Zoki Poki”; Anastasija Anevska also known as Lidija in the show, and Matej Zimbakov, known as Goki in the show. Anastasija is 12 years old and a student in primary school “Kuznam Josifovski-Pitu” and Matej is 10 years old and a student in our school “Lazo Angelovski”. Read the interview bellow and find the answers they gave us in regards to the production of the show.

Trailer from the TV show

L.A. IN-formator: When and how did you get the desire for acting?

A.A.: Ever since I was little, I had the desire to take up acting because acting has been something that has hold my interest and made me feel happy and joyful as well as other pleasant feelings.

M.Z.: The idea for acting came to me from the desire to become a famous children actor and I managed to succeed in this when I got the chance to take part in the casting for the TV show that was held in my school.

L.A. IN-formator: Have you been a member of an acting studio or a drama group before? If the answer is yes, which one?

A.A.: Yes, I am a member of the acting group “Detski svet” which is part of the theater Comedy lead by Magdalena Rizova for the last 3-4 years.

M.Z.: No, I haven’t been a part of any acting group, but I am a member of the drama group in my school.

L.A. IN-formator: Is this the first time to act in a TV show or have you acted in other series or films before?

A.A.: No, it’s not my first time to be part of this type of projects. I’ve acted in two, a very soon in three short movies: “Sticker” and “Skopje 2020” and I’ve filmed three commercials: “Risko”, a commercial for UNICEF and a commercial for Stopanska Banka. I’ve also participated in two shows in the Drama theater: “Festen” and “Pillow man” and other shows with my acting group from theater Comedy. I would recommend that you watch all of these shows, including the children’s cartoons on the TV channel Pikaboo where I have voice-over many characters such as Dora the explorer, Odd squad, Paw patrol and many others.

M.Z.: Yes, this is the first time for me to act in a TV show.

L.A. IN-formator: How did you enter to take part in the TV show Zoki Poki?

A.A.: At first I didn’t know that the show Zoki Poki was going to be filmed, so I didn’t know there was a casting. But during one of my acting lessons my teachers told me about this project and that is how I entered to take part in it, which in the end was a wonderful experience for me.

M.Z.: I entered to take art in Zoki Poki during the casting session that was held in my school. They gave us a paper where we choose if we wanted to take part of the show.

PL.A. IN-formator: Which character do you play in the show?

A.A.: In the TV show Zoki Poki I played the part of Lidija.

M.Z.: In the TV show Zoki Poki I played the part of Goki.

L.A. IN-formator: How many episodes are there in the TV show Zoki Poki?

A.A. and M.Z.: The first season of the TV show Zoki Poki has 10 beautiful episodes.

L.A. IN-formator: How long did the production of the whole TV show last and how long did the production of one episode last?

A.A. and M.Z.: The shooting of one episode lasted around 4 or 5 days, but the production of the whole show took about 1 to 2 months.

L.A. IN-formator: On which locations did the shooting of the TV show take place? And which was your favourite location?

A.A.: The shooting took place on several locations such as the primary school “Petar Pop Arsov”, in Zoki Poki’s building, parks and even in a garage where one or two scenes from the third episode happened. From all these locations, my favourite were the ones in the parks and playgrounds because it was nice to look at the surroundings while we were shooting. However, I also liked when we were filming in the “scary” basement in the third episode.

M.Z.: There were different locations that were used for the filming of the show Zoki Poki: the school “Petar Pop Arsov”, the Zoo, Vodno, near the center of the city. My favourite location was in the school “Petar Pop Arsov”.

L.A. IN-formator: Tell us about some situation from the shooting that you are going to remember forever (some happy or sad moment/situation).

A.A.: There were many precious moments that I’ll remember, but two of those I like the most. The first one was during the shooting of the first episode in the Theater for children and youth when all of us had to eat cake to celebrate Zoki’s birthday. The funny moment was when Goki’s face was all covered in cake because Boki smashed the cake into his face. There was another moment when we were sad and happy at the same time, and it was the last day of the shooting of the show. We were all happy, but also sad because we knew that we won’t see each other every day and enjoy the filming because for us the shooting of the show was fun. We all gave each other gifts and cried a bit.

M.Z.: A funny moment from the shooting was when I was hiding under a bed so I won’t be in filming shot, and after that everyone was shouting “Goki under the bed, Goki under the bed!”

L.A. IN-formator: Did you remain in contact with some of the other actors after the filming of the show ended?

A.A.: Yes, after the filming ended we all remain in contact with each other, myself, Zoki, Goki and Boki. We all became friends during the two months of the filming and we are still happy to remain friends in the future.

M.Z.: Yes, we remained in contact with some of the actors after the filming.

L.A. IN-formator: Does acting make you happy? (And if yes in what way?)

A.A.: Of course, acting makes me happy. The easiest way to describe how I feel is through a situation in which all of us has found ourselves in. For example: when we finish with writing some homework assignment or when we eat the whole bowl of fruit and vegetables or when we don’t do something bad but instead help someone else, we all feel nice in a way, we feel fulfilled and proud. This is how I feel when I see that my audience is satisfy with what they hear and see and they give me a loud applause. That is like a reward we get for working long and hard. However, apart from this satisfaction, I also have the feeling of happiness I get when I am on the scene or location where we act because you can be free and you do all the things that you like. You can act and relax by doing some things that might be considered as foolish just because they are unusual. These are the feeling I usually feel when I act and they are just enough to continue with acting.

M.Z.: Yes, acting makes me happy and also allows me to make new friends. During the filming of the show, the president came for a visit and also a lot of different things happened.

L.A. IN-formator: Would you like to act in another show or movie and what are your plans about this in the future?

A.A.: As I already mentioned, I have already started filming another big project called Stela and Sani in which I am Stela. It is the first animated movie made in our country and I am really grateful that I can take part in it and to sing songs that are not available in Macedonian language. You can check out the YouTube channel for Stela and Sani where you can see two song that have already been published. I have also finished with filming a new movie that will be aired soon call “The white rabbit”. And as always I hope that soon I will be able to continue with the work in my acting group and I’ve already been working with the voice over for other cartoons on the Picaboo TV channel together with the studio “Klarion”.

M.Z.: Yes, I would enter another casting in order to be able to film again. Also I would like to act in another TV show.

Video (meet Goki-Matej Zumbakov)