Films Vladimir Tagić plans to see at the Belgrade Auteur Film Festival

Morning Changes Everything. Children of Evil. The Sabre. Yugo Florida. The work of Vladimir Tagić often feels like fragments of memory, both personal and collective, memories that are difficult to speak about. Morning Changes Everything marked the adolescence of my generation, warm and wistful yet brutally real, almost like the last rock and roll, as Andrija Kuzmanović described it in a recent interview for Vogue Adria. I still keep that soundtrack on my phone, Bitipatibi, Obojeni Program, Pionir 10, for the moments when I want to return to that elusive nostalgia. Yugo Florida, Tagić’s debut film that won the prestigious Heart of Sarajevo award this year, is deeply personal and autobiographical, yet told in a way that opens space for each of us to recognize ourselves in that painful story of watching someone we love slowly fade. It feels as if he is reading our thoughts, speaking the unspoken, bringing all that is suppressed up to the surface. Yet in that emotional cataclysm there is always tenderness, a trace of hope, and a sense of solace.

The film will have its Serbian premiere at the closing of the thirty first Festival of Auteur Film, which will bring together numerous local and regional filmmakers alongside Tagić, including Nikola Ležaić, Stefan Đorđević, Hana Jušić, Jafar Panahi, winner of the Palme d Or, Mascha Schilinski, recipient of the Jury Prize in the main competition of the Cannes Film Festival and Germanys Oscar submission, Oliver Laxe, Dag Johan Haugerud, the first Norwegian laureate of the Golden Bear, and many others. The festival, born as a light in the darkness of the nineties, offering the audience a glimpse of the world as a possible escape, holds an equally important role today, to break through physical, censorship, and political barriers and to show that the directorial urge for truth and freedom cannot be stopped.

If you are unsure which films from this years rich FAF program you should not miss, here is the must watch list compiled for us by director Vladimir Tagić.

A Simple Incident, Jafar Panah

“Panahi is an important and major filmmaker. A Simple Incident is this years Cannes winner and feels more relevant than ever, since the central question the protagonist asks himself is whether we should seek revenge on our tormentors. I am eagerly waiting for this film and I definitely will not miss it.”

About the film: Directed by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, A Simple Incident explores the consequences of an apparently harmless event that exposes deep social and moral tensions. What begins as a minor accident sets off a chain of escalating consequences. Mechanic Vahid believes that the driver of a car is actually Egbol, known as Wooden Leg, the man who once tortured him in prison. Vahid kidnaps the man and, with the help of former prisoners, tries to uncover the truth in a tense story about memory, revenge, and moral ambiguity.

Screening time: 23 November at 19h

A Simple Incident

The Poet, Simón Mesa Soto

“I can easily see myself in the story of a poet who, after never achieving the success he longed for, begins to project his own obsession onto a young girl in the hope that she will accomplish what he could not. Although this is an archetypal narrative, based on the trailer, the critical response, and the awards it has received, The Poet seems to me like a very authentic and honest film.”

About the film: Oscar Restrepo’s obsession with poetry has not brought him fame. Growing older and increasingly unstable, he slips into the familiar figure of a poet living in the shadows. When he meets Yurladi, a teenage girl from a modest background whose talent he helps develop, his mood begins to lift. Yet bringing Yurladi into the world of poets may not be a good idea.

Screening time: 23 November at 17h

The Poet

The Shadow of My Father, Akinola Davies

“The Shadow of My Father tells the story of two brothers who spend a day with their estranged father during a pivotal moment in Nigeria, the 1993 elections. I am especially drawn to the fact that the film was written by two brothers, one of whom is also the director, which makes me feel that the story is inspired by their own upbringing and lived experience. The blend of intimate and collective, personal and historical, is something I always find compelling. I hope the film lives up to my expectations.”

About the film: Two young brothers explore Lagos with their estranged father during the 1993 Nigerian electoral crisis. They witness the vastness of the city and their father’s everyday struggles while political unrest threatens their journey back home.

Screening time: 26 November at 16:30h

The Shadow of My Father

Silent Friend, Ildiko Enyedi

“I am drawn to filmmakers with whom I share little yet whose work I deeply respect. Ildikó Enyedi is exactly that kind of author. Silent Friend sounds genuinely intriguing. A story about a garden and three generations across three eras seems to raise interesting questions about transience and endurance, the immediate and the eternal, people and plants. I am truly looking forward to this unusual film, which has already received numerous awards, especially at the Venice Film Festival.”

About the film: On the campus of a historic German university town stands a ginkgo biloba tree. The centuries of life contained in this tree sharply contrast with three intimate human stories. In 1908 the first female botany student faces sexism. In 1972 a withdrawn student becomes fascinated by his roommate and her geranium. In 2020 a neuroscientist and a renowned botanist from Hong Kong conduct experiments on the ancient tree.

Screening time: 22 November at 21:30h

The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendonça Filho

“The Secret Agent won four awards this year at Cannes, including Best Director. It has excellent reviews and an impressive one hundred percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. Political thrillers feel more relevant than ever. The story takes place in Brazil in the seventies, during carnival, following a man who is trying to leave his past behind. I am curious to see how the film will balance carnival joy and personal suffering, stylization and rawness.”

About the film: Brazil, 1977. A technology specialist in his early forties is on the run. He arrives in Recife during carnival week, hoping to reunite with his son, but soon realizes that the city is far from the peaceful refuge he is searching for.

Screening time: 25 November at 19:00h

Silent Friend

Sirat, Oliver Laxe

“Sirat drew me in with its setting and its tone. A father and son set out in search of their missing daughter and sister, and their journey leads us not only through the desolate landscapes of southern Morocco but also through inner spaces we rarely illuminate. What interests me most is the meeting of two worlds, one a bare, almost mythical landscape, the other the pulse of underground rave culture where reality and dream begin to overlap. I want to see how the director will find that fine line between light and darkness, between searching and losing.”

About the film: A father and son arrive at a rave in a remote mountain region of southern Morocco, where Mar, their daughter and sister, disappeared during a rave several months earlier. They show her photo to partygoers with no success, surrounded by electronic music and a particular kind of freedom they have never encountered before. Growing more desperate, they decide to follow a group of ravers to one final party deep in the desert, hoping they will find her there.

Screening time: 22 November at 19:00h

Sirat