19TH FREE ZONE FILM FESTIVAL
FILMS
INTERNATIONAL SELECTION
AFIRE
A love quadrangle in a house on the Baltic Sea, in the shadow of forest fires and heated emotions.
THE ETERNAL MEMORY
When Chilean journalist Augusto Gongora is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, his wife begins documenting the disease progression through a series of home videos.
CLUB ZERO
A group of students at an elite school, under the influence of a new teacher during a course on conscientious food consumption, decides to go one step further – and stop eating completely.
TILL THE END OF THE NIGHT
Just a seemingly classic film noir where a gay cop is in love with a trans femme fatale.
BLACKBIRD BLACKBIRD BLACKBERRY
Etero, a 48-year-old woman from a small Georgian village, never wanted a husband. Her choice to live alone causes a lot of gossip. Unexpectedly, she falls passionately in love and has to decide what to do next.
!AITSA
A mystical and visually fascinating film about the search for the meaning of existence that connects ancient African myths and modern science and technology.
REGIONAL SELECTION BALKAN HORIZONS
BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS
Two women separated by political revolutions in Romania and Iran find a connection through letters, defying distance and turmoil.
SIRIN
An unusual legal case will bring Natali back to her country of origin, Montenegro, which she left after the beginning of the Yugoslav wars.
BOTTLEMEN
Documentary western drama about the last days of the hypnotic community of plastic bottle collectors aka bottlemen, at one of the biggest unsanitary landfills in the world.
GOALGETTER
Nikola’s life is turned upside down after he publicly accuses his football coach of sexual molestation.
THE GHOSTS YOU DRAW ON MY BACK
Teenage Sara travels to a small provincial town for her grandmother’s memorial service. While fighting her wounds and fears, Sara finds shelter in the company of a worker from the construction site.
BLAGA’S LESSONS
Blaga is a retired teacher who falls victim to a phone scam that robs her of her life savings. While trying to get her money back, she transforms into a scammer herself.
DAY OF THE TIGER
While going through an emotional breakdown, Vera, a small-town zoo veterinarian, causes the escape of a tiger.
WHAT’S TO BE DONE?
Is it possible to be a worker and revolt against capitalism? Is the outcome of every possible riot known in advance? Goran Dević shows a 12-year fight of Željko and his colleagues from the Gredelj Train Factory.
HESITATION WOUND
On the day of the sentencing hearing for a murder suspect whom Canan is defending, she must make a moral choice that will affect the lives of her mother, the judge, and the defendant.
FIRST TWO STEPS
NUMBER MY WANDERINGS
In a church in Germany, a priest receives a group of refugees in the midst of a crisis. In a bizarre and exaggerated way, refugees are faced with a bureaucracy managed by German institutions that decide their fate.
PARADISE IS BURNING
Three sisters aged 16, 12 and 7 are living the life of their dreams. Their mother has been away for months, and their oldest sister Laura takes care of everything. When social services announce their arrival, Laura decides to find a person to act as their mother.
SNAJKA: DIARY OF EXPECTATIONS
Just married Croatian-Roma couple is trying to live together, suspended between expectations from families and communities in culturally irreconcilable backgrounds. Hrvatsko-romski par mladenaca pokušava da živi zajedno, rastrgnut između očekivanja porodica i zajednica u kulturno nepomirljivim sredinama.
BREAD AND SALT
At the meeting point for the local youth, a newly opened neighborhood kebab bar, Tymek witnesses the spiraling tensions between his friends and the Arab employees, leading to a tragic finale.
FALCON LAKE
A shy teenager on a summer vacation experiences the joy and pain of young adulthood when he forges an unlikely bond with an older girl.
OPPONENT
After a devastating rumor, Iman and his family flee Iran. Despite feeling powerless, Iman tries to maintain his role as the family patriarch in a run-down hotel in northern Sweden, but his past won’t let go of him.
EU ZONA PROMENA
DEAREST FIONA
In Amsterdam’s Movie Museum, Fiona Tan explores the silent documentary material, buried deep in the archives more than a century ago.
NORTHEN COMFORT
A diverse group of people with a chronic fear of flying are stranded in the wintry north.
PAWNSHOP
Black docu-comedy from the largest pawnshop in Poland. Times are tough, bankruptcy looms, but then the two choleric proprietors get a bright idea.
GREEN ZONE
BREAKING SOCIAL
What boundaries need to be crossed for us to unite, organize and become truly vocal in the fight against injustice and corruption?
THE VISITORS
Attracted by the Norwegian government’s promise that anyone can come to Svalbard without a visa and settle there as long as they have a job and an apartment, Zdenka moves from Czechia to Longyearbyen, the northernmost inhabited place in the world.
THE ECHO
In The Echo, a remote village in the highlands of Mexico, life is simple and stripped down to the essentials. Nature, animals and people that connect love, closeness, illness, death and hope.
WOMEN'S LINE
FEMINISM WTF
Experts from the fields of political and social sciences, masculinity studies, gender, queer and trans studies, through film dialogue with dance video sequences, ask how we can contribute to breaking power and dependency relations. How can we become a society for everyone, based on solidarity?
AND, TOWARDS HAPPY ALLEYS
Fascinated by the Iranian film and the poetry of the iconic feminist poet Forugh Farrokhzad, the Indian director Sreemoyee Singh goes in search of her role models. Her guide is no less than Jafar Panahi.
JOAN BAEZ: I AM A NOISE
The legendary singer and activist honestly and uncompromisingly looks back through music and a huge family archive on her 60-year career, historical figures and turbulent events, but also personal struggles, traumas and long-hidden family secrets.
EU TEEN ZONE
20,000 SPECIES OF BEES
Tokom leta u bakinoj kući na selu, osmogodišnjakinja i njena majka suočavaju se sa sopstvenim identitetom i otkrivaju stvari koje će im zauvek promeniti živote.
DORMITORY
Forced to leave the comfort of his middle-class lifestyle at his father’s behest, fourteen-year-old Ahmet is sent to an all-boys religious dormitory where he must navigate familial expectations, religious obligations, and the childhood to which he so desperately clings.
IT’S RAINING IN THE HOUSE
One hot and stormy summer by a touristic lake, seventeen-year-old Purdey and her younger brother Makenzy walk the line between experiencing adolescence, finding love and fending for themselves.
RADICAL
A teacher in a Mexican border town full of neglect, corruption and violence, tries a radical new method to unlock his students’ curiosity, potential – and maybe even their genius.
FOREVER-FOREVER
After transferring to a new school, Tonja meets Dzura and Sanja, who fight for her affection. They spend their time wandering around the post-socialist suburbs of Kyiv. However, Tonya’s painful past continues to haunt her, threatening to destroy her newfound friendship and love.
FREE ZONE JUNIOR / FUTURE IS HERE
AR-RTYHMIC
Dve različite škole, zgrada i zajednički život, jedna u stranoj zgradi, a druga u zajedničkom domu.
IN SEARCH OF BEAUTY
Three different women talk about their relationship with makeup, its mundaneness, what it reflects, and how it affects them.
MY GRANDFATHER - A DESK FOR EACH PUPIL
When the Serbian government in the 90’s forcibly removed the students from the school facilities after they did not accept the imposed curriculum, the director’s grandfather and some volunteers took the initiative to build new desks for them.
NOW, FOR EVERY CLASS
This short documentary shows high school students in the place where they poof their problems away, the place where they enjoy breaking the school rules.
PLEASE, PICK UP
The story unfolds through a girl who shares her experiences concerning her drug-addicted friend.
PREY
Prey serves as a metaphor for the vicious cycles we tend to find ourselves in. Struggling to resist the allure, the character gives the euphoric feeling a chance.
SUADADE
A short visit to dad…
THE ENCHANTRESS
When real life and spirituality meet, it creates a magical reality, just like this documentary. See through the eyes of spiritual beings, in a world where you can use magic for the greater good.
THE CELL
We follow the everyday scenes of high school life from a student’s perspective. Certain nooks and crannies are colored by the word-of-mouth rumor that the school was a women’s prison in the World War.
MEATBALLS
It is the weekend, and the family is heading to Grandma and Grandpa’s for Sunday lunch. Three generations are gathered.
THE BEST I CAN
Portrait of a father from his 19-year-old daughter’s perspective.
VIOLENCE?
School is more and more frequently the site of violence, and the teachers and students are the ones who are supposed to conjointly maintain peace in the school community.
PYRAMID
Pyramid is a portrait of a multi-story building in New Belgrade that once upon a time represented a significant shopping center in whose corridors today we see abandoned bars and dilapidated boutiques.
SMOKING (A LITTLE BIT)
In Smoking (a Little Bit), the director tries to find out why some people (do not) smoke, while raising the question why some do the things which they know have a negative effect on both them and those around them, and why some refuse to follow in other people’s footsteps.
I’M THE ONLY ONE HAVING FUN
At the club entrance, they asked neither for ID’s nor checked pockets and purses. It seems as though an uninvited guest, GHB has made his way in. Beware… He will sweep you off your feet.
BORDER FREE ZONE
FOUR LITTLE ADULTS
A middle-aged couple, in the middle of an infidelity crisis, decides to open their marriage and venture into polyamory.
THE INVESTIGATOR
Former investigator of The Hague Tribunal returns to the Balkans, to places where the war crimes were committed nearly 30 years ago. Can justice be brought from the outside?
MAMULA ALL INCLUSIVE
Ivo Marković, a surviving former inmate of the Mamula prison camp, opposed the decision of Montenegro’s government to build a luxury hotel at the location of a World War II prison camp, where countless civilians suffered.
THE SOFT SHIPS
A documentary film about the theatre company Kugla glumište, the most important avant-garde theatrical, multimedia, and interdisciplinary art collective in Croatia and SFR Yugoslavia from the mid-1970s and early 1980s.
M
The world has been ravaged by a pandemic. Alone and outside the safety of the forest, Marko faces a shattered world shrouded in silence and danger.
LAST NIGHT OF AMORE
On the night before his retirement, a police lieutenant Franco Amore is called to investigate a crime scene, where his best friend and long-time partner Dino has been killed during a diamond heist.
FREEDOM
In the chaotic days of the ’89 Revolution, the city of Sibiu becomes the scene of a violent assault on a Police station that escalates into a bloody confrontation between soldiers, police officers, civilians and the secret police.
ON THE ADAMANT
A portrait of the Adaman ship, a day reception center for people with mental disorders.
LUIS BUÑUEL TRIBUTE
AN ANDALUSIAN DOG
Surrealistic masterpiece that follows the journey of a man and woman as they navigate a dreamlike landscape filled with bizarre and symbolic imagery, challenging the boundaries of reality, desire, and the human psyche.
THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL
Biting satire that delves deep into the human psyche, exploring the fragility of social conventions and the irrationality that lies beneath the surface.
THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE
Surreal and thought-provoking classic, recognized for its sharp social commentary and inventive narrative structure, which continues to captivate and perplex audiences.
DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID
A classic in Luis Buñuel’s filmography, offering a compelling blend of social commentary and psychological intrigue.
BELLE DE JOUR
Belle De Jour stands as a captivating and iconic work in Buñuel’s filmography, challenging conventional notions of sexuality and identity in cinema.
THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE
That Obscure Object of Desire is a cinematic tour de force, marked by Buñuel’s signature surrealism and incisive commentary on human desires and relationships.
KINOKAUCH PRESENTS
LUZZU
A story about tradition and transition. A fisherman from Malta and his dreams to financially support his family by fishing and the challenges that every new age brings.
GENTLE
A film about bodybuilding obsession, romance, (un)fulfillment and love, told in-between workout sets and calorie counting.
THE JUMP
In 1970, Lithuanian sailor Simas Kudirka made a desperate leap for freedom from his Soviet vessel to a US Coast Guard cutter, but the Americans sent him back – inciting one of the Cold War’s most complex and suspenseful political blunders.
THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN
His own body turned into a living work of art, Sam, a Syrian refugee, will soon realize to have sold away more than just his skin.
THE NOTHING FACTORY
The transformation of a mundane factory into a stage for rebellion sparks a profound exploration of labor, life, and resistance.
GLORY TO THE QUEEN
Glory to the Queen brings intertwined biographies and a rare insight into the current lives of four legendary chess players from Georgia who, during the Cold War, revolutionized women’s chess around the world and became icons of female emancipation.
WHITNEY: CAN I BE ME
Explore Whitney Houston’s poignant journey, battling fame’s pressures and seeking authenticity in this revealing documentary.
IVAN
Caught amid a violent corruption affair, a young woman is forced to make an impossible choice between the man she obsessively loves and her newborn son.
GRACE JONES: BLOODLIGHT AND BAMI
Energetic concert performances and intimate, personal footage display the life and talent of singer and actress Grace Jones.
FREE ZONE & CINEPLEXX
NORTHEN COMFORT
A diverse group of people with a chronic fear of flying are stranded in the wintry north.
JOAN BAEZ: I AM NOISE
The legendary singer and activist honestly and uncompromisingly looks back through music and a huge family archive on her 60-year career, historical figures and turbulent events, but also personal struggles, traumas and long-hidden family secrets.
CLUB ZERO
A group of students at an elite school, under the influence of a new teacher during a course on conscientious food consumption, decides to go one step further – and stop eating completely.
AFIRE
A love quadrangle in a house on the Baltic Sea, in the shadow of forest fires and heated emotions.
RADICAL
A teacher in a Mexican border town full of neglect, corruption and violence, tries a radical new method to unlock his students’ curiosity, potential – and maybe even their genius.
LAST NIGHT OF AMORE
On the night before his retirement, a police lieutenant Franco Amore is called to investigate a crime scene, where his best friend and long-time partner Dino has been killed during a diamond heist.
FOUR LITTLE ADULTS
A middle-aged couple, in the middle of an infidelity crisis, decides to open their marriage and venture into polyamory.
STRANGE WAY OF LIFE
Pedro Almodovar’s queer western starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal, inspired by a song by Portuguese faddist Amalie Rodríguez.
HESITATION WOUND
On the day of the sentencing hearing for a murder suspect whom Canan is defending, she must make a moral choice that will affect the lives of her mother, the judge, and the defendant.