Inventory

A photographic chronicle of a drastic transformation of Sava Centar, an iconic building that once embodied a vision of the future for the progressive, Non-Aligned, international Yugoslavia. 

Once a symbol of Yugoslavia’s progress, Sava Centar in Belgrade was left to deteriorate since the country broke apart. Piece by piece, the interior elements that resided in this cultural and congress centre since the 70s are torn out. Like many of the younger workers on the reconstruction, Nenad is here for the first time. 

This film is shown together with “Temo Re” as part of the special screening “Still Life in Motion”.

Programme section: Still Life in Motion
Original title: Inventar | Year: 2025 | Duration: 21′
Country: Serbia | Language: Serbian | Subtitles: English
Director: Ivan Marković | Production: Jelena Radenković – Big Time Production | Screenplay: Ivan Marković | Cinematography: Ivan Marković | Editing: Ivan Marković, Sara Gregorić | Sound: Jakov Munižaba

FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION) 

Cinéma du Réel International Documentary Film Festival, 2025 – World Premiere | Beldocs, Belgrade International Documentary Film Festival – Special Mention | Interaction Short Docs Festival – Best Film | Kino Otok – Isola Cinema International Film Festival | Underhill Documentary Film Festival | DokuFest International Documentary and Short Film Festival | ARKIPEL International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival.

DIRECTOR’S BIO 

Ivan Marković (1989, Belgrade, Yugoslavia) is a filmmaker and visual artist currently living in Berlin. His recent work focuses on various connotations of space and observes the relationship between architecture and ideology. He worked as a cinematographer on films including “Landscapes of Resistance” by Marta Popivoda, “Wondrous is the Silence of my Master” by Ivan Salatić and “I Was at Home, But” by Angela Shanelec, which won the 2019 Silver Bear at Berlinale. His experimental documentary “Centar” premiered at Doclisboa. With Linfeng Wu, he co-directed “White Bird” and the feature film “From Tomorrow On, I Will”, which had its premiere at Berlinale 2019 and won the Grand Prize at Jeonju IFF. His work was exhibited at ICA London, Museum of Contemporary Arts Belgrade and Bethanien Berlin. Since 2020, he has been a member of the European Film Academy.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

Growing up, Sava Centar was an important, inexplicable place for me, unlike anything else in Belgrade. It felt like a portal to another time and place. Yet my earliest memories of it are from the mid-1990s, when it was already long past its prime. “Inventory” documents its transformation after privatisation in 2020, as furniture and interiors were stripped to bare concrete, marking an ideological end. Teenagers from a youth cooperative, disconnected from its history, also worked on-site. I observed Nenad, who paused to absorb the space for the first time. As his shift ended, the film left Sava Centar with him, confronting the incoherent present rather than offering nostalgia.