Best Serbian documentary movies

We all learned in schools that the WWI began with the assasination of Franz Ferdinand done by a young Bosnian Gavrilo Princip. In fact, the war was brewing much longer.

For Serbian filmmaker Mila Turajlic, a locked door in her mother's apartment in Belgrade provides the gateway to both her remarkable family history and her country's tumultuous political inheritance.

A documentary about bizarre residents of Shutka, a Macedonian village built on the former city dump area. Shutka, where everyone is the champion of something. This film is a celebration of the culture, humor, spirit, oddities and idiosyncrasies of the Roma, one of the world's poorest and most persecuted peoples. Ultimately we are instructed in the celebration of life despite any and all circumstances - everyone is of value here.

The documentary film "250 Steps" is dedicated to the generation of Yugoslav junior national team that won the title of World Champions in basketball led by legendary coach Svetislav Pesic in the Italian town of Bormio in 1987.

This eye-opening and bittersweet chronicle of the Yugoslavian film industry recounts how the cinema was used—often with direct intervention from President Josip Broz Tito—to create and recreate the young nation’s history, replete with heroes and myths that didn’t always hew closely to reality.

Jelena Maksimović and Dušan Grubin explore coming of age and masculinity in the township of Zemun in their joint directorial debut.

Director's intimate story about the loss of his younger brother, who was brutally killed in a fight in front of one of Belgrade's riverside bars. Through this one and several similar incidents, where people lost their lives without any reason, the director searches for the roots of violence and hate in our society. Recipe for Hate is a documentary about the process of creating and spreading hate, and how we, as a society, have easily complied with the violence that surrounds us.

Made from a collection of home movies, news footage and photos gathered from a residency in Belgrade in memory of a country that no longer exists.

We don't run fast - we want to reach far.. Our imperative is not an individual's victory - but a better community.. We do not want to overtake you - but to surpass ourselves.. Our results do not point out that we are better - but that you can do it as well.

We don't run fast - we want to reach far.. Our imperative is not an individual's victory - but a better community.. We do not want to overtake you - but to surpass ourselves.. Our results do not point out that we are better - but that you can do it as well.

By the end of 1915, during the second half of World War I, which had started by the Austro-Hungarian Empire's attack on a small Kingdom of Serbia, Serbian people, its army, and the state found themselves in the greatest tribulation in its long history. Serbia is attacked by the combined militaries of Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany, and Bulgaria. Defending every road, every hill, every creek, during the time when every village, every plato, every crossing was becoming a historical landmark, Serbia, relying on the Allies, moved its people, its government, and its remaining troops to Kosovo--the only unoccupied part of the Serbian territory, but soon had to cross Albania in the hopes of reaching the Allies' ships in the Mediteranian.

Documentary about the life and career of Serbian rock musician Vladimir "Vlada" Divljan.

Story about the suffering of the Serbian people on Kosovo and Metohija based on Metropolitan Amfilohio's book "The Chronicle of the New Kosovo Crucifixion".

A documentary about the commander of the King Peter II Karađorđević's Mountain King's Guard - Nikola Kalabić.

Stories About Bora Đorđević and Riblja Čorba, commercially most successful Serbian rock band.

The movie follows the story of actual historical figures on which the characters of popular Yugoslav TV series "Otpisani" were based, who were all undercover combatants of the royalist Yugoslav faction.

The film is based on Chetnik, Italian and German documents, as well as on the testimonies of the duke's comrades-in-arms, along with film footage of the scene.

"Kao da je bilo nekad" is a documentary about band Ekatarina Velika (1981 - 1994). The band had a profound influence on the ex-Yugoslav scene of the 1980s and ended unusually tragic five members of the creative core of the band died between 1992 and 2002 from heroin abuse. The film comprehensively presents the band career with a particular attention to individual destinies of its members while trying to pose the question - who is actually to blame for their early death.

In 1945 the forgotten Serbian World War II Hero Walter got killed while defending the occupied city of Sarajevo. In 1972 the actor Velimir Bata Zivojinovic changed the history of China portraying Walter in a Yugoslav partisan movie. More than a billion people saw that film until today. Myth. Legend.

On a mountaintop in southwest Serbia lies the womanless hamlet of Zabrdje, where the Jankovic brothers hold the fort. Veering between the utterly hilarious and deeply poignant, this beautifully-crafted film follows one brother's quest to introduce women back into the once-vibrant community. But with no roads or running water, convincing a Serbian woman is out of the question.

A documentary on alternative music scene of Novi Sad (Serbia) that covers the period between 1989 and 2017.

Like Don Quixote, Zivan Pujic Jimmy fights for his annual punk festival. A film about failure, ambition, friendship and clinging to your dreams. Glavonic received much praise for this exceptional film that doesn't reveal what's fact and what's fiction.

The story of influential rock band from Belgrade.

Niko nema ovakve ljude! (trans. No One Has This Kind of People!) is the live/video album by Serbian rock band Riblja Čorba, released in 2010. The album was recorded on the band's concert held on October 10, 2010 in Belgrade Arena. The album featured two CDs and one DVD with the recording of the concert.

The film consists of the testimonies of eight exiles, interwoven with footage of the area where they were at the time, as well as their photographs.

A documentary-narrative film which looks at real events and personal phenomena of artist Zarko Lausevic. "Laush" above all tells a story of an evil time we've all been through, represents both sides and is made with empathy and respect towards everyone involved in the tragic incident. Through recreations, narration, memories of colleagues and quotes from the book "A Year Passes, a Day Will Never Pass" which the artist wrote during the hardest stage of his life, the weight of his fate is presented. The aim of this project is to portray the life of brilliant actor, who in the midst of great fame, disappeared from the scene through the cruelty of dubious times.

Brief history of Serbian history from the World War I

It is difficult to characterize Slobodan Tišma. He is unique and versatile. He wanders with joy throughout the artistic landscape, drawing it with his words since the early sixties. He started as a poet, he was a conceptualist, an "invisible artist" and a rock musician ("Luna"/"La Strada"- former Yugoslav New Wave bands). Currently, he is a prose writer, and sometimes he engages in minimalistic performances. Wearing different masks he moved from one artistic space to another breaking the stereotypes and creating an aesthetic phenomenon out of his own existence. His mainstay is margin. Through trees and ocean he communicates with the universe. He loves the game of seeking, and hiding again. He is a persistent walker. With his silent steps he pops up daily in the corners of Novi Sad, searching for his own pleasure. Similar to his writings, this film has no formal completeness and comprehensiveness. It wonders who Slobodan Tišma is.

A feelgood documentary about Nothing, in which Nothing, tired of being misunderstood, tries to defend its cause. Filmed worldwide by 100+ complementary DoPs, scored by cabaret grandmasters Pascal Comelade & The Tiger Lillies, narrated - in simple childish verse - by Iggy Pop.

Documentary western drama about the last days of the hypnotic community of plastic bottle collectors aka bottlemen at one of the biggest unsanitary landfills in the world.

Serbian high school graduates get together, 30 years later, in their former Belgrade classroom. They finished school in 1989. It was the year of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and their horizons seemed wide open towards Europe and the world. But instead, the Yugoslav wars broke out.

The main plot of the film "The Principality of Serbia" was put in the first seven decades of the nineteenth century when the state was being formed and strengthened together with its historical fate. This film shows the Serbs as people who fought during the two Risings while trying to liberate by themselves hardly and for a long time. It also shows how they hardly got the recognition to their liberty and the international recognition to the right to have their own state.

Tells about Darko Pančev, Macedonian football player and his story of success.

The tragic story of Dragan Mance, a promising football star of FC Partizan Belgrade who died in a car accident at the age of 23.

Through the conversation with Yugoslav film authors and excerpts from their films, this documentary film tells a story of a film phenomenon and censorship, and its focus is, in fact, a painful epoch of Yugoslav film called “a Black Wave”, which was the most important and artistically strongest period of Yugoslav film industry, created in the sixties and buried in the early seventies by means of ideological and political decisions. The film tells a great “thriller” story of the ideological madness which characterised the totalitarian psychology having left multiple consequences felt up to our very days. It stresses similarities between totalitarian regimes defending their taboos on the example of the persecution of the most important Yugoslav film authors. Those film authors have, however, made world careers and inspired many later authors. The film is the beginning of a debt pay-off to the most significant Yugoslav film authors.

The man from the border has spent his entire life searching for the biggest fish that the blue Danube hides. Every sunrise sees the old fisherman attempt to lure the river giant in an ancient fishing way by clapping on the river surface with a hand-carved piece of wood. Two rivals – one on the surface of the water and the other concealed within the depths of the mighty river are waiting to finally meet.

Bitter poetry of everyday life in the isolated hills of Eastern Bosnia shows the care and intimacy of the grannies, both in their mutual relations and in relationship with nature.

Germans settled in Vojvodina in the late 17th century. In time, customs and traditions were assimilated and former newcomers became natives and locals. However, WWII puts former neighbors to the test and reveals the best and worst in people. Defeated, collectively guilty, their trace will vanish. What is left is Vojvodina and places they inhabited, quiet witnesses and silent traces of existence.

In the 80s, the world was happily typing away on their Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum computers. However, not everybody had access to these wonders of technology. In Yugoslavia, people weren't allowed and couldn't afford to have a computer in their home, so they had to improvise. This campaign is a story about the origins of the Balkans computer scene and Yugoslavia's very own personal computer.

Dalibor Andonov Gru is a pioneer of the rap scene in Serbia and was among the first to start a new musical era in the entire former Yugoslavia. From the first album, concert, tour and authentic videos, it was clear that he would leave an indelible musical legacy. Interlocutors from various spheres of society, from music to sports, described how Gru was synonymous with the spirit of Belgrade.

Illegal immigrants and asylum seekers in Serbia, placed in asylum centers after their dramatic journeys from war-torn and poverty-stricken areas of North Africa, Near and Middle East go through a period of adaptation to life and social circumstances in Serbia. In most cases, however, their goal is to reach one of the EU countries. Docu-drama is a space for them to, beside the socio-political context in which they found themselves, show their individual values, becoming heroes that viewers can identify with and whose destiny and struggle they can understand.

A documentary re-enactment of the last few hundred years in Serbian history.

Jokes as a weapon of resistance: how satire sustains a beleaguered culture.

By the end of 2003, few people knew what the Special Operations Unit of the Republic of Serbia did: the media was fawning over them, politicians respected them.

Mladen Maticevic is a 40 year old Serbian film director. In the summer of 2005, he decided to try and run the full marathon race on the next Belgrade Marathon, in the spring of 2006. This film depicts his struggle to train, lose weight, learn the tactics and eventually win the race. His family doubts that such feat is possible while friends both encourage him and discourage him to pull it off. Suddenly the whole marathon run becomes a metaphor for everyday struggles in post-Communist Belgrade.

A short love story about birth, life and death of video rental stores in Belgrade, Serbia.

After a disturbing taxi ride, and an even worse party, a teenage girl must return home with a menacing taxi driver who insists on her sitting next to him.

The biggest Balkan star Lepa Brena in the documentary speaks about the fame but also reveals and yet unknown details from her biography. From childhood in Brcko, growing up in the working family to the achievement of the most successful career in the former Yugoslavia. How she built the brand, what was the role of her manager Raka Djokic, in the success of Lepa Brena and "Slatki greh" and how it looked like a tour that lasted for 9 years. The film is featured by prominent artists and public workers of a time brought by artists like Lepa Brena today.

A year within the walls of a juvenile correction facility in Serbia.

In August 1911, Serbian producer Svetozar Botoric and Louis de Beery (former Pathé’s cinematographer) left Belgrade to film a country wedding. With the bridal procession of 300 guests bringing together all the social classes of the time, we follow the young married couple step by step : at home, then at the wedding luncheon beneath the old oak trees, and finally smiling at the party that presents a really beautiful account of Kolo, a traditional Serbian dance.

Set in the 15th century and shows the clash of the Hungarian regent Ladislaus (Vladislava) Hunyadi with Count Ulrich II of Celje.

Ten years after the death of Josip Broz Tito, who ruled Yugoslavia from 1945 until his death in 1980, free elections took place for the first time in Serbia. The big winner was Slobodan Milošević, who became president. The story of what then happened in Yugoslavia is all too familiar. Could things have gone differently? In Invoked, five presidential candidates of the time look back on those first free elections. The political differences between them are still huge, from socially progressive and environmentally conscious to ultra-nationalist.

Belgradian parades and everyday street scenes.

Meet a man whose life was changed by electricity. An extraordinary person who can fry a hot dog with bare hands in an attempt to become the first human laser.

My grandma constantly complains that she is lonely. I am willing to understand her, knowing that maybe one day I will be lonely too. But, something I don't understand: every day she has someone around her and she is not lonely at all.

Two young actors are exploring the topic of representation of LGBTI people through the history of Yugoslav cinema and social circumstances that have resulted in different treatment of these characters.

At the beginning of Sumadijska street in the vicinity of Slavija Square on the 11th August 1913, the Serbian victorious army from the Second Balkan War led by the Crown Prince Alexander Karadjordjevic was given a huge welcome by the highest military and political authorities of Serbia and Belgrade, representatives of civil organizations and national institutions, as well as several tens of thousands of people from Belgrade, Serbia and Vojvodina.

Kenedi is in a huge debt after building a house for his family. He finds himself searching for any kind of work to support himself, for as little as 10 EUR per day, a scarce amount to help him relief his debt. Ultimately, Kenedi decides to look for money in sex business. Initially offering his services to older ladies and widows, he expands his 'business' to offer sex to wealthy men. When he finds out about new liberal European laws on gay marriages, Kenedi sees prospects in looking for a "marriage material", to renew his search for a legal status in EU. The opportunity arises during EXIT Music Festival, when he meets Max, a guy from Munich. But will their promising relationship bring the solution to Kenedi's problems?

Somewhere in the mountains, a man lives alone in a disappearing village. Wandering through the misty nature, interpreting among the walls of his dark houses, on the very ground with his destiny to belong to a world that has been rejected.

Dejan is an ordinary guy living in post-communist country. But each time a Chinese delegation visit his country, he’s treated as public enemy: state security taps his phones and tails both him and his family. The reason is he’s practising Falun Gong. But what is Falun Gong? Why is it banned and persecuted in China and what is the connection with Serbia? By following the events on the margins of Chinese Summit held in Belgrade in 2014, when police unlawfully detained 11 Falun Gong activists, we discover a story. The activists were held to avoid spreading the truth about Falun Gong in China. Through their testimony in this film, as well as Dejan’s exclusive video materials, the truth is finally brought to the light of the day. It's the bitter truth about China and the whole world we live in.

A winemaker determined to put up a plaque to the Nobel Prize winner and a persona non grata - Peter Handke, in a remote village in Kosovo.

A documentary about incredibly successful 10 years (1995-2005) of Serbian / Yugoslavian basketball team.

Druga linija aka The Other Line is a product of many years of research of neo-avant-garde cultural and art scene in Novi Sad, Serbia (late 60s and 70s), which has been marginalized until today. This artistic movement was directly connected not only with important art centers of the former Yugoslavia, but also with existing flows of world art during its brief and productive activities (7e Biennale de Paris, 19th Berlinale). The cultural and artistic emancipation of that time had implied individual freedom of expression and strong reaction to established boundaries. This avant-garde movement had become threat to communist establishment, the authors' work were sabotaged, the films were sealed off, five artists were taken to trial, two were sent in prison. How is it that the retrograde mechanism of shutting down and removing the most creative and representative progressive impulses of our surrounding is still so current to this day?

The Second Lieutenant Zivojin Marinkovic from the XII Infantry Regiment “Car Lazar“ of the Sumadija Division of I age class in the formation of the III Army, died heroically of the Bulgarian grenade on Zedilovacka ridge on the 6th July 1913 during the battle on Kiselica. His burial on the 7th July 1913 in Kriva Palanka was recorded by the cameramen of the producer Djoka Bogdanovic, who filmed the bringing of the coffin into the church of Saint Demetrius, funeral service and burial on the local cemetery.

An archival road trip with Stevan Labudović, cameraman to Yugoslav President Tito and cinematic eye of the Algerian revolution, investigating the role of cinema in the liberation struggles of the Third World and reconstructing the birth of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Experimental movie dedicated to the work of Ljubomir Šimunić, author of avant-garde seventies and eighties movies, and photographer. The Loop is about exploration of the eroticism phenomenon in the movie. This crossroad of Hollywood and European underground approach is shown trough the work of Belgrade garage movie author. Using the language of moving pictures author is searching for the missing shaman, a great master of magic - Šime.