LIFFE Leskovac: Seven Films Against Audience Alienation

When the projection of “Yugo Florida” begins on Tuesday, September 15, at the National Theater in Leskovac, the choice of opening title will be anything but accidental. The film by Vladimir Tagic has been given the honor of opening the 19th Leskovac International Film Directing Festival, and with that gesture the festival is making a point rarely said out loud: that domestic film has no reason to apologize for itself when it stands next to regional competition.

The festival, known by its acronym LIFFE, runs through September 19, with screenings held in parallel at the Leskovac Cultural Center and the National Theater. This year’s program is split into three sections: the main competition, “Special Treatment” for debut works, and the showcase strand “Binge,” devoted to series, an arrangement that in previous editions proved wide enough to hold both established filmmakers and those just starting out.

The main program was selected by screenwriter and director Ognjen Svilicic, who chose seven titles: alongside “Yugo Florida,” these include “DJ Ahmet” by North Macedonia’s Georgi M. Unkovski, “Southern Wind” by Croatian director Ante Marini, the Montenegrin drama “Obraz” by Nikola Vukcevic, the Bosnian-Herzegovinian film “Gym” by Srdjan Vuletic, the Slovenian title “White Is Washed at Ninety” by Marko Nebersnik, and another Serbian entry, “It’s So Green Here” by Nikola Lezaic. These films will be judged by a jury made up of American film critic Alisa Simon, Slovenian director Janez Burger, and Croatian producer Stanislav Babic.

Svilicic’s explanation of his selection is worth quoting in full, since it reveals the criterion behind his choices, one that, at a time when festival programming can easily slide into self-satisfaction, reads as almost a statement of principle:

“We have a choice ranging from the most-watched Slovenian film, emotional journeys through their own past in films by Serbian directors, a beautiful Mediterranean Croatian vista, a strong Montenegrin drama, a Macedonian festival hit, and a Bosnian dark-humored gem.”

Behind that sentence is the idea that European cinema, in Svilicic’s assessment, is increasingly drifting away from its audience, and that his job as selector was to narrow that distance rather than widen it by picking titles that perform well on the festival circuit but not in a theater full of viewers who paid for a ticket. That logic also shows in the sheer range of genres, from dark comedy to family drama, as if the monotony that would flatten the whole program into a single tone was deliberately avoided.

What does the debut program offer?

The festival’s second strand, “Special Treatment,” is aimed at first-time directors from Southeast Europe. Selectors Ivan Bakrac and Pavle Vuckovic chose five works: “Wind, Talk to Me” by Stefan Djordjevic, “Black Trumpet” by Bojan Stijovic, “Good Children” by Filip Peruzovic, “Safe Place” by Cecilia Stefanescu, and “Cemetery of Nameless Works” by Melik Kuru. According to the selectors, the lineup was guided by the question of what it means to return home, and whether home can even remain a place of belonging, since “the five films in this selection explore relationships to family, loss, inheritance, and one’s own identity.” The jury for this program consists of director Kosara Mitic, actress Anita Ognjanovic, and German producer Andreas Brauer.

The program’s third section, “Binge,” curated by director Bojan Vuletic, is reserved for series, a format LIFFE has in recent years started treating seriously as an authored work rather than as a mere addition to the film lineup. Audiences in Leskovac will see the first episode of “Mosquito,” directed by Timur Makarevic, Una Gunjak, and Vedran Rupic; the first episode of the third season of “Shadows over the Balkans” by Dragan Bjelogrlic; the first episode of the second season of “The Valley” by Danis Tanovic and Aida Begic; and the first episode of “The Fortress,” directed by Sasa Hajdukovic. That last name will already be familiar to anyone who followed this year’s NAFFIT festival in Zlatibor, since “The Fortress” left that festival with seven awards, meaning its first episode arrives in Leskovac carrying a reputation it still has to confirm in front of a new audience.

What this schedule ultimately shows, taken as a whole, is that LIFFE isn’t trying to be a small-scale Cannes. Instead it is working with what it actually has: geographic proximity to regional production and an audience that recognizes that production as its own. Seven titles in the main program, five debut filmmakers and four series aren’t a lineup chosen to create an impression of abundance, but a program that acknowledges the limits of its own format and works honestly within them. In a season when many festivals are choosing the opposite path, that is reason enough to go to Leskovac and see what this year’s selection has actually captured.