Lost Country

Nothing seems given when teenager Stefan has to reconcile his own relationship with his mother with the atrocities of the political party she represents in this drama set in an authoritarian Serbia.

Stefan is fifteen years old and headed towards an uncertain future. It is 1996 in Serbia, then part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and local elections have just been held. He lives with his mother, who he has a close relationship with. She is a politician and the spokesperson for the increasingly despised Milosević government, soon to be the subject of widespread student protests. With the radicalisation of his classmates Stefan feels alienated from both them and his mother, unsure of who to believe and how to act in a country in revolt.

Lost Country puts a pin in the tension between beliefs from one’s upbringing and those from lived experience, framed by a tumultuous era in Serbian history. Jovan Givic is impressive as Stefan in his first ever acting role, which earned him the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award at Cannes Film Festival.

«Despite being set nearly 30 years ago, there is an urgency and restlessness in the film that finds an echo in the dissent and political protest of a modern generation.»
– Wendy Ide, Screen Daily –

Jenny Lund

Director

Vladimir Perišić (b. 1976) is a Serbian director and writer. He graduated from film direction at La Fèmis with the award-winning short Dremano oko (2003). His debut feature Ordinary People (2009), also co-written by Alice Winocour, received altogether seven awards at the film festivals in Trieste, Miami, Sarajevo, and Cottbus.

This film is part of