The Other Side of Everything

A thought-provoking, remarkably layered winner of the IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary and the Lux Film Prize finalist.

Synopsis

A locked door inside a Belgrade apartment has kept family separated from their past for seven decades. As the director begins an intimate conversation with her mother – a retired university professor and renowned pro-democracy activist – the political fault line running through their home reveals a house and a country haunted by ghosts of the past. The chronicle of a family in Serbia turns into a searing portrait of an activist in times of great turmoil, from communism in Yugoslavia, through the Milosevic regime, until the present day, questioning the responsibility of each generation to fight for their future. An intriguing documentary by acclaimed Serbian filmmaker Mila Turajlic (‘Cinema Komunisto’) nominated for this year’s European Film Awards and awarded with more than twenty international awards.

‘The other side of everything’ is the only LUX Film Prize documentary nominee this year. Read more about this special screening provided by European Parliament.

Festivals & Awards (selection)

Toronto IFF – World Premiere | IDFA, 2017 – Best Feature-Length Documentary | FIPRESCI Serbia – Best Serbian Documentary 2017 | Millenium FF, 2018 – Objectif d’or | ZagrebDox – Fipresci Award, Best Film in Region, HT Audience Award | SEEfest LA – Special Jury Mention, Best Cinematography | Millennium Docs Against Gravity FF – Special Mention | One World Romania – 11 Award | Salem FF – Special Jury Award, Editing Award | Belgrade Documentary and Short FF – Best Editing, Best Sound Design | River Run IFF – Best Director | goEast – Award of the Federal Foreign Office for Cultural Diversity | Balkan Florence Express – Bridges Award | Uruguay IFF – Best Documentary | !f Istanbul Independent FF – Special Mention | IFF and Forum on Human Rights – Special Mention | TRT International Documentary Days – Republic Of Turkey, Ministry Of Culture & Tourism Special Prize | Al Este FF – Best Documentary

Director’s statement

I want to speak of my country, from a very personal angle, and from a very precise point of departure – the place where I live. Why from there? Because I have been privileged to grow up observing Serbia through the beliefs and actions of a woman who thought it her responsibility to speak up about things that were happening in it. Because my mother and I have always shared this language of politics – she was a student leader in 1968, and so was I in the 90-ties. Because my family home was the gathering place for intellectual discussions, activist meetings and often just refuge from the madness taking place outside. Because this home is in the center of Belgrade and the things happening in Serbia today. Because the more I stare at the locked doors in our living room that I have been faced with all my life, the more I realise how much about Serbia can be understood by talking about divided spaces.