Festival audiences line up for ambitious Serbian thriller Incarnation
High concept thriller Incarnation is the latest Serbian film to attract attention, as word of mouth builds in the wake of premiere screenings in the UK, US and in the Balkans.
Following the film’s world premiere at London’s celebrated Raindance Film Festival and a showing at ScreamFest in Hollywood, the fast-paced actioner from Belgrade director Filip Kovačević has more screenings lined up for November.
Audiences at Germany’s prestigious Cottus Film Festival (Kammerbühne, Cottbus: 8/9 Nov) and Night Visions in Helsinki, Finland (Kinopalatsi, Helsinki: 9/12 Nov) will be next to see the film that is attracting so much attention.
Incarnation is a visually striking thriller about a seemingly ordinary young man (Stojan Djordjevic) who gets stuck in an enigmatic loop, in which he gets killed repeatedly by four masked assassins.
Bosnian Sevdah Star Amira Presents Damar: Real World Class
As a siren entices sailors to a watery grave, an expressive soul can lure strangers to get giddy on its intoxicating tales of love, loss and sorrow.
Sarajevo-born sevdah singer Amira Medunjanin calls on genuine emotional depth to deliver songs that tell of the allure of the heart and the grip of sorrow, as put to good use on her latest release, Damar.
Like Portuguese fado, Judeo-Spanish ladino and flamenco from Spain, the rich Sevdah songbook of the Balkans is loaded with passion, sorrow, bloodlust and feuds, as well as romance, humour and, naturally, a heavy dose of dark melancholia.
Amira has refined the art of storytelling through song. When she sings, it is as if she is speaking to us only.
Like a voice in our head, a lover speaking softly close to our ear, the acclaimed Bosnian singer conjures emotions that are personal and real, and their appeal is inescapable.
The Promise of Wine, Feuds and Passion in Rural Serbia
Even hardened teetotallers would be moved by The Promise, a character driven documentary of passion and determination to unleash dormant potential in a proud people and their fertile land.
Vineyards in the village of Rogljevo in Eastern Serbia once sent wine around Europe and were exhibited in Bordeaux and Paris.
Those days are long gone and this region close to the Romanian border is run down and neglected: wineries are in ruins, tourism is negligible, and the less than 200 villagers still living there struggle to make ends meet.
The Promise is a stunningly filmed documentary that follows the trials and tribulations of a French couple who relocate to a remote Serbian village with a vision to revive the lost traditions of a forgotten wine-making region.
