Catch the Best of ENFF during November in Filmhuis Den Haag
Catch four audience favourites during our Best of ENFF screenings in Filmhuis Den Haag! A carefully curated selection of the best films at Eastern Neighbours Film Festival. If you missed out on some screenings because they sold out, here’s your second chance. The Best of ENFF selection brings back four festival favourites: Phantom Youth, Blum – Masters of Their Own Destiny, Man of the House and Yugo Florida, each capturing the spirit of Eastern European cinema. Don’t miss them this time!
PHANTOM YOUTH (Bota jonë) by Luàna Bajrami, 2023, Kosovo, France, 94′
Two Kosovar girls leave their village to study in the capital, only to face the harsh reality of a country in turmoil, awaiting independence.
Phantom Youth takes us to Kosovo in 2007, a nation on the verge of independence yet still haunted by the aftermath of war. Two young women, Zoe and Volta, leave their village for Pristina, hoping that education will offer them freedom and a better life. Instead, they find a city scarred by corruption, where young people struggle to build a future amid broken institutions. Blending a coming-of-age story with a portrait of a country still defining itself, the film asks: can a generation growing up in ruins reclaim its voice?
INFO & TICKETS
Wednesday 12 November at 19:00h
BLUM – MASTERS OF THEIR OWN DESTINY (Blum – Gospodari svoje budućnosti) by Jasmila Žbanić, 2024, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, 76′
A documentary about Emerik Blum, the visionary engineer who inspired a generation to believe in collective progress and self-determination.
Emerik Blum, the visionary engineer behind modern Sarajevo, transformed the city into a symbol of progress and founded Energoinvest; Yugoslavia’s largest exporting company with over 40,000 employees. Through his leadership, he fostered a pioneering model of worker self-management that blended innovation, social responsibility, and community. Žbanić’s film captures Blum as both a pragmatic leader and an idealist who sought a “Third Way” between capitalism and socialism. Through personal testimonies and archival footage, it pays tribute to his legacy while reflecting on Sarajevo’s rise and decline, preserving a vital chapter of Bosnian history.
INFO & TICKETS
Saturday 15 November at 16:00h
MAN OF THE HOUSE (Burri i Shtëpisë) by Andamion Murataj, 2025, Albania, North Macedonia, Italy, Austria, Croatia, Kosovo, 104′
After a death in the family, Fran faces a painful choice: to maintain her masculine social role or to revive the maternal instincts she once mourned and buried. In a story charged with tension and challenges, Fran must confront the enduring weight of social expectations and conflicting identities.
Set in contemporary Albania, “Man of the House” draws on the centuries-old Balkan tradition of the “sworn virgin”, in which women renounce marriage and sexuality to assume a male social role. Fran has lived for years as a man in a society where modern conversations about gender identity do not exist, navigating a harsh, patriarchal world that demands toughness at every turn. After her sister-in-law dies and with her brother away abroad, she becomes responsible for her young niece, stepping into a maternal role that clashes with the life she has built. As she and the girl navigate loss together, Fran is torn between the hard, manly exterior she must maintain, and the love and care she feels for the child – forced into an unavoidable reckoning of identity, responsibility, and affection.
INFO & TICKETS
Wednesday 19 November at 21:00h
YUGO FLORIDA by Vladimir Tagić, 2025, Serbia, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Montenegro, 112′
An emotional, often darkly humorous drama of a son caring for his unbearable father in his final weeks.
Zoran drifts through life in quiet resignation. When his estranged father is diagnosed with a terminal illness, their road trip in an old Yugo Florida becomes an unexpected journey of reconnection and vulnerability in a culture where men rarely show emotion. Blending fiction with documentary-like realism, the film offers a raw portrait of personal failure, family distance, and a society trapped in emotional and social inertia.
INFO & TICKETS
Sunday 30 November at 15:30h
