{{ mainName }}

{{ newsTitle }} {{ newsVisible ? '✦' : '✧'}}

    • New Talents Open Call 2025
      As the only competitive program at ENFF, the New Talents Competition invites filmmakers or artists with their first, second or third short film, to compete for an Audience Award. Submit your film till 21 August 2025.
    • On Tour: Chajdas’s Imago at Cavia, Amsterdam
      ENFF lands in Cavia, Amsterdam for the first time! On Friday 28 February, we screen the post-punk psychological drama Imago by Polish director Olga Chajdas.
    • On Tour | My Late Summer | LHC, Utrecht | 07.12.24.
      Last night, we took On Tour to Utrecht for a special screening at Louis Hartlooper Complex and mingled. We showed our festival’s closing film, My Late Summer by Danis Tanovic, one more time! Thank you to everyone who joined us for an evening filled with great film and fantastic company.
    • ENFF Closing Day | Filmhuis Den Haag | 01.12.24.
      Photos by Mladen Pikulic
DirectorNicolas Wagnieres
ProducerBenjamin Poumey / C-Side Productions
WriterNicolas Wagnieres
EditorDamian Plandolit
CameraDenis Jutzeler, Benoit Peverelli
SoundMasaki Hatsui
ScreeningSat 10 November | 12:45 hours | Filmhuis Den Haag
Sun 11 November | 20:15 hours | Filmhuis Den Haag
Sun 11 November | 15:00 hours | Theater Dakota
Year2017
Length78 min
CountrySwitzerland
SubtitlesEnglish
SectionDOCUMENTARIES OPEN DEBATES

A documentary-reflection of a Serbian society in search of new points of reference, premiered at this year’s Berlinale. Screenings will be followed by Q&A with the director Nicolas Wagnières. Dutch Premiere

Synopsis

The Hotel Jugoslavija was a mythical place, both a symbol and a witness to the different moments that shaped former Yugoslavia. From Tito to Milosevic, from NATO’s bombing to corrupted liberalism. With journey through the times and spaces of the building, the Swiss-born director explores a collective unconscious as well as a part of his own Yugoslav identity as a second generation immigrant. By exploring the Hotel Jugoslavija and by meeting people with a strong link to the building, he wanted to bring his own testimony to a country that does no longer exist. What secrets are hidden in the Hotel Jugoslavija?

Director’s statement

While filming „Hotel Jugoslavija“ the owner of the building changed three times – each one bringing his own new transformation project: bigger, higher, and more luxurious. To me, this is watching the new political and economical paradigms at work after the transition from a socialist to a post-socialist world and how it reshapes a city and a country. By exploring the various eras and states of the Hotel Jugoslavija and by meeting people with a strong link to the building, I wanted to bring my own testimony to a country that does no longer exist. If there’s an inherent nostalgia in the film, then it’s about a country I never really got to know except through childhood memories. As an adult I discovered what remained of it. The gap between Tito’s ideal socialism and the reality of the people and the way they were represented was real. But can today’s reality allow any kind of identification? As the Hotel Jugoslavija has still not finished its mutation, I keep wondering about our relationship to the built environment and its impact on changing values.

Festivals & Awards (selection)

Berlin International Film Festival, 2018 – Panorama Dokumente, European Premiere | Subversive Film Festival, 2018 – Best Documentary | Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, 2018 | Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival, 2018 | Beldocs, International Documentary Film Festival, 2018 | Sao Paulo International Film Festival, 2017

ENFF Newsletter