Serbian film "3 Weeks Later" to have world premiere in Karlovy Vary
Miroslav Terzic's new film, in the main competition of the 60th Karlovy Vary festival, deals with peer violence, silence and collective guilt.
- Miroslav Terzic's film "3 Weeks Later" enters the main competition of the 60th Karlovy Vary festival.
- The festival runs from July 3 to 11, 2026, and is the only A-category event in Central and Eastern Europe.
- The story follows high school students who go on a school trip three weeks after a classmate's death.
- Its themes are peer violence, silence and collective guilt, and the film is inspired by true events.
There is a moment in every classroom when someone disappears while the others keep laughing as if nothing had happened. It is exactly from that gap, between the tragedy and the school trip that proceeds on schedule, that Miroslav Terzic’s new film “3 Weeks Later” emerges, set to have its world premiere in the main competition of the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
The festival in the Czech spa town runs from July 3 to 11, 2026, and it is the only A-category festival in Central and Eastern Europe, which places this Serbian title among the few from the region competing for awards at such a level. The very fact that a story about a single high school class ends up in the same section usually reserved for major European auteurs says a great deal about the project’s ambition.
How do you film a silence that kills?
The film’s starting point is dense and uncomfortable. A group of high school students, three weeks after the tragic death of their classmate, sets off on a school trip. A journey that should be carefree turns into a space where guilt, repressed memories and everything no one dares to say out loud begin to pile up. Terzic does not take the easy route of showy drama; instead he enters a dramatic arc in which silence is the lead character, and peer violence is not a scene but an atmosphere.
The film is inspired by true events, which in this case is not a marketing phrase but a framework that binds. The theme of collective guilt rarely gets such direct treatment in the Serbian context, especially when it is refracted through the experience of minors. The directorial sensibility hinted at in the announcement leans on a realistic tone and on trust in young actors rather than on outward spectacle.
The story follows a group of high school students who, three weeks after the tragic death of their classmate, go on a school trip, where they are confronted with questions of peer violence, silence and collective guilt.
Young actors take center stage
The lead roles are played by emerging talents of the domestic scene: Jovan Ginic, Andjela Alavirevic, Klara Hrvanovic and Andrija Markovic. Relying on newcomers in the central roles feels like a deliberate authorial choice, since a story about adolescents calls for faces the viewer has not yet grown used to, faces without the baggage of earlier parts.
Alongside them, the film brings two experienced names, Tihana Lazovic and Branislav Trifunovic, who in such a setup usually carry the world of adults, those meant to see and react yet too often looking the other way. That contrast between generations is part of the same theme: responsibility does not end with those who stayed silent in the school corridor.
A premiere in Karlovy Vary is not merely a festival footnote. It is a test of how ready domestic cinema is to speak about the hardest subjects without sugarcoating and without moralizing from a safe distance. What do you think, is a film about peer violence and collective guilt a story our audience truly wants to watch today?
