Lost Country has met with a great response at this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week. The world premiere of the new film by screenwriter and director Vladimir Perišić was held today at the Cannes Film Festival. All seats in the “Miramar” cinema were filled, and Perišić and his team were rewarded with a long and hearty applause.
The visibly satisfied director received numerous congratulations from film professionals and lovers of the seventh art. Apart from Perišić, other members of the team bowed to the audience, among them screenwriter Alice Vinokur, young actors Jovan Ginić and Miodrag Jovanović (who play key roles in the film), Croatian co-producer of the film Ankica Jurić Tilić, Croatian actors Marija Škaričić and Dušan Valentić… Tickets for all screenings of Perišić’s film, both those held today and tomorrow, have already been sold out for a long time – which indicates that there is great interest in the film.
Among the guests at this world premiere were numerous filmmakers from Serbia and the region, including Gordan Matić, director of Film Center Serbia ; Sandra Perović, film critic and author ; Jugoslav Pantelić, director of the Yugoslav Cinematheque; Kris Maričić, director of HAVC; Aleksandar Protić, sound designer and producer. The film was included, we remind you, in Semaine de la Critique (Critic’s Week), a prestigious competition program that is traditionally an official part of the Cannes Film Festival.
Sandra Perović said that it is a sincere, personal, intimate and emotional film, and added: “This is an engaging family drama with a strong social and political background and an intense emotional charge. This was obviously a very cathartic experience for the director. There is, of course, his unpretentious, minimalist directorial approach to the story, which we noticed back in the movie Ordinary People. There are no wide angles, everything is given in large scale, which makes the emotional states of the protagonists so believable and experienced.”
This year, the 62nd edition of Critics’ Week brings eleven productions from around the world, seven of which, including Lost Country, will compete for the Grand Prix and other awards. The jury of the “Critics’ Week” program is chaired this year by the French director Audrey Diwan, whose film Happening won the Golden Lion in 2021 in Venice. The Critics’ Week program lasts from May 17th to 25th 2023.
Lost Country is a co-production of France, Serbia, Luxembourg and Croatia, and the only film from this part of Europe in this year’s Cannes programs. The film is set in Belgrade in 1996, when during the student demonstrations against the Milošević regime, fifteen-year-old Stefan goes through his own revolution and faces the fact that his mother is an accomplice of the corrupt government. The role of the mother is played by prominent Serbian actress Jasna Đuričić.
The film was supported by FCS in the Competition for Co-financing the production of domestic feature films, recognizing “the potential for a long and successful life at the most important international festivals, as well as in world arthouse distribution”.
Serbian film last had its representative in Cannes in 2018, when Load directed by Ognjen Glavonić was shown in the program “Fifteen Days of Authors”.