Serbian Epics
★ 7 · 1992 · 42m · Documentary
Paul Pawlikowski's award-winning documentary on life behind Serbian lines in Bosnia. The film observes the roots of the extreme nationalism which has torn apart a country and provides a chilling examination of the dangerous power of ancient nationalist myths.
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Tour to Strasbourg
2026 · ★ 10
They started their 1400 km journey to the capital of Europe on bicycles from Novi Sad, Serbia. This trip, from a divided country that has been in a socio-political crisis for five months, since the tragedy at the Novi Sad railway station - they called it the trip of justice. Eighty students from Serbia cycled through 6 European countries and 15 large cities in 12 days. Festive welcomes, tears, song and laughter in the squares all over Europe. They were welcomed by the Serbian diaspora, but also by the leaders of the cities they passed through. They went to Strasbourg with the desire to be heard by Europe and the world and said "We are not driving to Europe to escape from Serbia. We are driving to bring it back."
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Dead Man Walking
2006
In September 2004, Himzo Muratovic returned from the dead. Himzo turned up in a taxi in his Bosnian Muslim village, 12 years after he disappeared at the height of the Serb terror. His mother fell unconscious when neighbors told her that her missing son had returned. For several days the village celebrated the return of the long-dead Himzo Muratovic.
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Off Season
1997 · ★ 8
Summer 1994, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Two civil wars in only three years has torn the city apart and destroyed it. The town is split into a Croatian majority in the west and a Muslim majority locked in the east. An invisible wall divides the two areas. The EU appoints German social democrat Hans Koschnick as municipal administrator of the town in the hope of rekindling a sense of community there.
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Fragments of Humanity
2022
In the Kosovo War, human dignity was shattered by the terrors of the Serbian government and the Albanian liberation army. Truths about the victims’ fates faded away, which is why a Finnish forensic research group led by Helena Ranta got a mission to act as an unbiased agent and investigate the real course of events.
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2012
This documentary was inspired by the artistic life of Serbian actress Sonja Savić. Being a wonder child, a star of Yugoslavian cinematography, a sex symbol, and urban legend of the eighties generation, a fighter against establishment, Sonja Savić had always attracted attention. Simply put, she always looked, spoke and thought differently from others, she was entirely autonomous, an authentic phenomenon of Serbian culture. In the documentary SONJA, friends and colleagues of Sonja Savić testify on many aspects of her life and work, and a special emphasis is put on Sonja’s libertarian, rebellious, Don Quixote type of nature.
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The Presumption of Justice
2012 · ★ 3
Through the socio-political overview of the problematic structure of fan clubs and football supporters in Serbia, this movie focuses on a particular case of an incident involving a French citizen - football fan in Belgrade, which led to 12 young people being convicted to 240 years of prison. One of them is Stefan Velickovic. This is the story about the man who became a part of a huge political scandal, and his right to defend himself. As someone who has not even been at the spot of the incident, he has been pronounced guilty of a crime. What are the interests and intentions for making Stefan a scapegoat?
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Make It Happen
2013 · ★ 3
The film features intertwined scenes of young dance troupes' performances and scenes where famous Serbian actors, artists and athletes speak out to young people, in order to inspire them to by their own example to chase after and fulfill their lives' dreams. The 34 minute long film is fast paced and shows different types of dances at several key locations in Belgrade, Serbia. The performances are cut by the interviews with the artists and athletes, addressing the viewer, who talk about their beginnings and the road to success. The third segment of the film are young people, transitioning into adulthood, who talk about what their own dreams are. The idea that the film "Fulfill your dream!" carries is to show young people, through the movie itself, through the testimonies of successful artists and athletes, and finally through the example of the author, that it is possible to start an independent career, thanks to their creativity, ambition and perseverance.
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Where the Yellow Lemon Blooms
2006 · ★ 6
By the end of 1915, during the second half of World War I, which had started by the Austro-Hungarian Empire's attack on a small Kingdom of Serbia, Serbian people, its army, and the state found themselves in the greatest tribulation in its long history. Serbia is attacked by the combined militaries of Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany, and Bulgaria. Defending every road, every hill, every creek, during the time when every village, every plato, every crossing was becoming a historical landmark, Serbia, relying on the Allies, moved its people, its government, and its remaining troops to Kosovo--the only unoccupied part of the Serbian territory, but soon had to cross Albania in the hopes of reaching the Allies' ships in the Mediteranian.
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The Final Battle
2024 · ★ 8
This film documents four delegated performances/castings, featuring participants who are both directly and indirectly actors of war: veterans, civilian victims, disabled individuals, or those traumatised by conflict. Applicants that have been seduced to participate in four castings of imaginary movie altogether agreeing to be part not only of an experimental film, but also of a subversive cinematic social experiment. They signed up for battle in the movie, and got an unexpectedly brutal lesson about conflict. They certainly, but so do we who watch it.
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A Failed Peace, The Mistakes of The Treaty of Versailles
2019 · ★ 8
At the end of WWI, the treaty of Versailles established the conditions for peace in Europe. The aim for the victorious powers was to make Germany pay reparations, and to guarantee a future without war. Yet a decade later, the denunciation of 'Versailles' became a powerful lever for the nazis to obtain power as these reparations would mark the beginning of the humiliation of the German people, and nurture a feeling of having been bestowed a hopeless future. In the 20 years that follow the end of WWI, the issue of reparations and responsibility will effectively poison international relationship. The treaty negative impact goes well beyond WWII as the new European borders it implemented led to many conflicts during the twentieth century. This documentary shines a light on the causality between the decisions taken with the treaty of Versailles, and the ensuing events of the century.
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Logbook_Serbistan
2015 · ★ 5.2
Illegal immigrants and asylum seekers in Serbia, placed in asylum centers after their dramatic journeys from war-torn and poverty-stricken areas of North Africa, Near and Middle East go through a period of adaptation to life and social circumstances in Serbia. In most cases, however, their goal is to reach one of the EU countries. Docu-drama is a space for them to, beside the socio-political context in which they found themselves, show their individual values, becoming heroes that viewers can identify with and whose destiny and struggle they can understand.
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Macedonian
2015
A tale of victory of humanism over revenge motif. Amir Reko (nicknamed "Macedonian", but actually Bosnian Muslim by ethnicity), the ex-captain of Yugoslav People's Army, saved lives of 44 Serb civilians during the siege of Gorazde in 1992. He went through personal and professional temptation during the war, while plenty of other officers ended up in Hague or other international criminal courts across Europe.
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