Run under the auspices of the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia in Pretoria, the Serbian Film Festival is currently taking place until 29 November at Nu Metro, Montecasino, Johannesburg.
Included in the line-up is Dragan Bjelogrlic’s Montevideo. Set in Belgrade in 1930, the film follows 11 passionate, very talented soccer players and their journey from the cobblestone streets of impoverished Belgrade neighborhoods to the formation of the national team before the very first World Cup in faraway Uruguay. Montevideo had record ticket sales in Serbia and won the Audience award at Moscow IFF.
When Day Breaks is a co-production between Serbia, Croatia and France directed by Goran Paskaljević. Misha Brankov is a retired music professor. One morning he receives a letter requesting him to contact the Jewish Museum in Belgrade. At the museum he learns that during some excavations on the sewers at the city’s Old Fairgrounds, an iron box was found, in the same place as an infamous concentration camp set up for Serbian Jews and Gypsies during World War 2. The contents of the box will change the Professor’s life.
A Serbian, German and Hungarian co-production, The Trap is set in post-Milosevic Belgrade, capital of a nation struggling to find its soul, of a country whose turbulent recent past has left many in a moral and existential desert. This is the home of Mladen, his wife Marija and their son Nemanja. When Nemanja develops a serious heart condition, the doctors urge an operation abroad. But where to obtain the 26,000 euros? Just when the boy’s parents give up hope of raising the money, a man contacts Mladen and offers to pay the whole amount. But there is one thing Mladen must do: kill the man’s business rival.
Other Serbian titles to be screened at the festival include Besa; Love and Other Crimes; The Tour; Death of a Man in Balkans; Redemption Street; Professor Kosta Vujic’s Hat; White Lions; and Practical Guide to Belgrade with Singing and Dancing.
For more information and screening times visit http://www.numetro.co.za/cinema/31/
