Film in Serbia is rich in exceptional cinematic works, excellent directing and great actors and actresses. What characterizes the art of film in Serbia is a special kind of humor and joie de vivre. It is very difficult to compile a list of the best Serbian films, so I will make a short subjective selection of five films that have delighted both audiences and film critics.

• Ko to tamo peva? (Who’s Singin’ Over There?) – 1980, directed by Slobodan Šijan, screenplay by Dušan Kovačević

This black surreal comedy tells the story of a group of travelers who, in 1941, in the last days of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, take a dilapidated bus on a country road deep in the heart of Serbia towards Belgrade. Along the way, the group is confronted with an army roadblock, a farmer plowing the road, a flat tire, a funeral, two feuding families, a rickety bridge and the recruitment of the bus owner’s son into the army.

• Balkanski špijun (Balkan Spy) – 1984, directed by Dušan Kovačević

The film is a satirical political and human comedy based on a play of the same name. It deals with the political paranoia of Ilija Čvorović, a former Stalinist who spent two years in prison for his political convictions. In his political paranoia, Čvorović pursues his lodger, a returnee from France, whom he believes to be an agent of the dangerous imperialist powers and a spy.

• Kad budem mrtav i beo (When I am Dead and Gone) – 1967, directed by Živojin Pavlovića, screenplay by Ljubiša Kozomar i Gordan Mihić

One of the most famous films of the Black Wave era tells the story of a young man from a low social class named Džimi Barka in uncompromising naturalism. Although he has no singing talent, he travels through the Serbian provinces as a singer, meets the picturesque characters and finally arrives at the competition for singing talents in Belgrade.

• Parada (The Parade) – 2011, directed and written by Srđan Dragojević

This tragicomedy tells about the fate of Radmilo and Mirko – a homosexual couple – in Belgrade, who are  harassed by the intolerant environment. When Mirko is working on organizing a Pride parade, nationalists and neo-nationalists announce the massacre, while the police refuse to provide security for the event. But help arrives unexpectedly from a former gangster who has nothing to do with the gay scene.

• Maratonci trče počasni krug (The Marathon Family) – 1982, directed by Slobodan Šijan, screenplay by Dušan Kovačević

This black comedy tells the story of a family firm of morticians who use illegal means to bridge their financial crisis: instead of making new coffins for their customers, they take old coffins from the cemetery by desecrating graves. After the death of the head of the family, a conflict arises between the family and their former business partner, who was commissioned to provide the coffins.

Text: Snežana Stefanović