Radmila Živković
Through the intimate stories of seven young directors, October is the generational attitude towards Serbia today, shown in different perspectives and through different genres - from black comedy to melodrama, poetic portrait to the socially engaged horror. Motif that binds all of the stories together is the tenth anniversary of the democratic revolution. Each film is taking place on that day, 5th of October in 2010, and each film is differently related to the anniversary and what that event means 10 years after. The film brings fresh visions of the seven young directors who were teenagers at the time of the overthrow of president Milosevic and his regime. On a personal and emotional way they show a complex picture of modern Serbia.
Goose Feather (Serbian: Jesen Stiže, Dunjo Moja) was Serbia submission to the 77th Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee. Vaguely based on a song By Djordje Balasevic called "Prica o Vasi Ladackom" (the story of Vasa Ladacki). The story is about a very poor boy that wanted abundance and wealth because he basically didn't own anything. He was in love with an equally poor girl that his father wouldn't accept. He moves to another village and starts drinking...
The story takes place in a dilapidated building in the blocks of New Belgrade, whose tenants constantly fight and do bad things to one another. In the same building lives a quiet and young married couple, who are completely different from their environment.
Zona Zamfirova is set in the eastern Serbian city of Niš in the 19th century. The plot follows the story of Zona Zamfirova, a local rich man's daughter, and the vicissitudes of her affair with Mane, an ordinary goldsmith. As it was undesirable for the daughter of a rich man to marry a craftsman, the two are at first divided, with the possibility of Zona marrying Manulać, who came from a wealthy family. Everything is, however, changed as Mane organizes a successful conspiracy to keep Zona for himself.
The basic plot revolves around drug dealer Limeni (Tin Man) who is said to have no heart, and two men, Lemi and Kiza, who are trying to transport their dead grandfather for burial, until their car breaks down and they end up struggling to get him home onboard a train. This is when these two plots intersect and all hell breaks loose.
A fifteen year old girl Senka, comes from a wealthy family whose parents enroll in an elite school where she meets a drug dealer with whom he falls in love, and so it has hitherto completely unknown world. Senka is a young and inexperienced girl who, unwittingly, in his new world, the world of drug addiction and pulled his best friend.
A famous fashion designer returns to his birthplace in a tiny Serb town, in the wake of the recent war. Although the inhabitants still love to dance the tango and live life's pleasures to the full, the Mafia have gained a foothold.
Čeda is a clerk, pushed around by everyone. He is "everybody's girl". He walks his poodle, makes coffee for a group of poker players and their wives. Čeda goes to sanatorium because his mother-in-law decided to go on vacation just then, and he is her obligatory companion. When he returns alone, because of his job, he finds big fuss in his house, many tempting, unknown girls, local bullies and other, funny creatures. He is wondering how to get out of it.
The last film made in Yugoslavia, tells a story about Sarajevo during the last days of Europe, better known as the "Belle Epoque", between the years 1910-1914. A time of troubled events in the Balkans and an assassination attempt of Franz Ferdinand, which caused the beginning of the First World War.
A modernized comedy of Branislav Nusic's novel, about the life and work of a "small manufacturer", his professional and familial relations.
After the release from prison, small-time criminal is marrying his girlfriend and lives a straight and poor, but happy life with her and her daughter. However, his happiness is shattered by wife's infidelity. Driven mad by jealousy, he kills her and her lover and runs into mountains, thus escaping law for years. This film is based on the true story about Junuz Kečo, last Bosnian outlaw.
An eminent communist wants to make his son a respected person so he could live without much trouble. He fails to accomplish that due to his son's different vision of success.
During the excavation of ancient Roman ruins, an old archaeology professor accidentally opens the gate between our world and the world of the dead.
Mihajlo, an introvert piano teacher starts romance with a pretty careerist who teaches modeling at the university in Belgrade where they both work. His feelings are awakened after a long period, but this relationship makes him see the flashbacks, as well as yet unseen images that remind him of his troubled childhood - as if he experienced this already. When their university wins a contest to hold public TV performance, Mihailo fails to play the piano on the decisive night and she dumps him. The boiling point is about to come.
Seven women are sick of working in poor conditions on a farm. They steal a tractor and go to the city.
Adventures of an idealistic old Communist whose treasured watch is stolen by a magpie but who overcomes all difficulties.
A moving story about the residents of correctional facility, rejected by parents and environment. Going through a strict regimen of life in the home, they are constantly trying to reverse the fate in their favor. Although they were given a chance to change, their actions always return to the beginning. Constantly on the border between personal whims and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become humans, they remain as wolves who find hard to change their mood. What finally remains is a perpetual dilemma whether their fate is innate, or is it forced by the communities in which they grew up...
After graduation, a young woman gets his first job in the women's prison in the province. The story follows her struggle to survive in a small town with her small child, alcohol addiction, and the battle with the prisoners and prison brutality and other schemers who wanted to remove her from working spot.
An imposter and thief called Dumpling escapes prison and arrives to a respectable institute of doctor Strukl in Balm Sanatorium. The doctor is a specialist for reduction and gaining of weight, and wanted by many celebrities, especially because it is known that he has specialized in Switzerland. Dumpling, discovering that he is physically similar to doctor, and seeing his big chance in it, disables the doctor and takes his place at the sanatorium.
Wonderful war stories about Isidor Katanic, officer who spent his working life as a calligrapher writing to various documents. Resignation living at home, living with rampant wife and her son from a previous marriage, sloth. Very soon retire and go to the river. On the bank of the Sava river meets an old friend, a former captain in love with the river. Accepting new way of life, isidor becomes a different man. But it comes terrifying wartime.Yugoslavia was occupied, the terror begins. Isidor is witnessed changes and in him growing need to resist the atrocities of the invaders. He refuses to flee with his family from Belgrade, it becomes illegal brave, little hero of invisible front.
Tragicomic story about Communist activist who wants to bring the benefits of Communism to the inhabitants of a Serbian village after WW2.
The manager of a company gets in trouble when he cannot pay his workers. The billions were spent on a football stadium which is empty now, and the bank did not approve new credits for the meaningless investments. Maybe the stadium will get filled during the concert of popular singer Lepa Brena.
A young prison inmate gets released together with an old gangster. They go to town together in order to visit their families and friends, but nobody knows that the old man is mortally ill.
An Albanian pilgrim, infected with an unknown disease, is on his way back to Belgrade from the Middle East. When doctors realize that it is a disease that has been considered eradicated, it is already too late - variola vera begins to languish and the hospital is quarantined.
A joint fight of Macedonian and Greek people against the fascist monarchical government of Greece ended with their defeat in 1949, after many years of bloodshed. Many members of the democratic party DAG, as well as the innocent inhabitants experienced the destiny of political exile.
After confronting his professor, a student of medicine loses his illegal bed in student housing and finds a job as a housemaid at Sava Mitrovic house. The family happiness soon turns into a chaos, falling apart like a Robert Hall suit.
DJ from a small town plans to organize a great artistic happening. His plans coincide with those by local bigwigs who desperately want to promote a local food company.
Story about a group of eccentric Dadaist artists in a small Serbian town in the 1920s.
Dr. Ilic works in the hospital for compulsory treatment of alcoholics. By conducting his own "special treatment" through physical exercises, apple eating, the healing effects of listening to Wagner's music and psychodrama, a group of six patients have been taken to visit the brewery where there is a problem of alcoholism in the workplace.
The war is over, and a group of young Partisans returns to their town to continue their interrupted education. They are doing everything in their way, because they are young enough to go to school and to horse around, but mature enough to react to lies and injustice. Loud, ready to fight, they are a problem in school, in youth organization, in town's command. And when they get used to normal life, one of them gets killed by Chetnik renegades' ambush. The comrades wear their uniforms again, take their weapons and succeed in revenging their comrade. When they return to school again, they are determined to pass the maturity test as well...
The story of a group of people who came to France to the temporary work, their sufferings, persecutions, and a constant struggle for survival.
A journalist lives his smooth citizen life, married to a woman from respected family. But, conflicts with manager at work are becoming more often, his marriage is unstable and the outer manifestation of all this is a strange skin disease. Doctors recommend resting in nature and self-examination. In the mountains, in a lonely house near the lake, he meets a woman, also unadjusted and lonely. The consequences of this encounter are beneficial. Capable to love again, he gets his moral strength, and disease retreats. He breaks off his contacts with his wife's family and with "petit bourgeois" of his former life, confronts his boss and wins, realizing that this is only a first victory which has straightened him up.
Sfaira (1971-1984) dedicated to Pythagoras and Plato is a homage to two of his favourite spheroids: the Earth and the Sun.
Buzga the shepherd, an object of ridicule among his fellow villagers, discovers his painting talent and becomes famous. Their envy leads them to paint themselves and try to outperform him, but after realizing that only Buzga's paintings are valued, they decide to steal his works.
