Focus: Grief
Words by Stefan Malešević, ENFF Film Programmer
In a world increasingly torn apart by inequality, polarisation, and waning empathy for “the other”, one experience remains a common denominator: grief. Some mourn their loved ones; others grieve for lost homelands – whether abandoned or destroyed. Even those who seem well off lament the erosion of ideals and the collapse of trust in institutions once meant to uphold peace, protect human rights and prevent genocide.
Grief is a complex emotion with a wide spectrum of manifestations. It can be angry and stoic, just as it can be humble and melancholic. Its roads lead through self-reflection to inner peace; or devastation. Grief is a feeling, a process, a ritual, and a phenomenon.
This year’s Focus section brings together five films that approach this multifaceted concept from different angles, yet all return to the central question of belonging – and the sense of a home lost.
“We Live Here” and “When Lightning Flashes Over the Sea” confront collective grief after the destruction of entire regions, each tied to different incarnations of the Russian state. The former examines a Kazakh region devastated by Soviet nuclear testing, its population and landscape scarred for generations. The latter offers a poetic and warm but post-apocalyptic portrait of Odesa in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Where these films explore how societies mourn their habitats, “Wind, Talk to Me” narrows the focus to a single family grieving a mother, as her loved ones (played by the director’s real family members) attempt to complete the home she had planned. “Yugo Florida” also addresses the loss of a parent, though here the grief starts with a diagnosis of an incurable illness. At the same time, the film doubles as an obituary for Serbian society, mired in corruption, cronyism, poverty and the numbing haze of reality television.
“Man of the House” turns inward, dealing with the most intimate form of home – the body itself. It follows an Albanian sworn virgin living as a man, who is forced to confront the instincts and emotions she long suppressed when her orphaned niece requires maternal care.
To deepen the exploration, a panel discussion will bring together the filmmakers behind three of these works. This conversation aims not to dwell on grief for its own sake, but to reflect on how art can help us process it.
