Working Class Goes to Hell

Serbian maverick director Mladen Đorđević’s (The Life and Death of a Porno Gang) returns with another uncompromising, wildly imaginative, and transgressive blend of genre and social drama. In a forgotten factory town, a group of former workers, led by the fearless, middle-aged Ceca (Tamara Krcunovic), struggle to find hope and justice after a tragic fire and corrupt privatization have robbed them of their jobs, loved ones, and dignity. A former convict (Croatian star Leon Lucev) appears, offering a way out through ancient magical rituals, drawing them into the supernatural while forming a relationship with Ceca that intertwines sexuality, religion, and the otherworldly.

Đorđević’s once again brings people from the margins to the forefront, giving them a voice, denouncing the destructive policies of the Serbian government, and questioning the role of spirituality—and its darker side—in the lives of ordinary people who have been downtrodden for decades. It’s an immersively dark film infused with black humor, blending established actors with non-professionals in a meticulously designed, decrepit setting that plays a key role itself.

Radnicka klasa ide u pakao | Mladen Đorđević | 2023 | Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Croatia, Romania

FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION) 

Toronto IFF, 2023 – World Premiere | Tallinn Black Nights, 2023 | Belgrade IFF FEST, 2024 – Best Director, Best Regional Film, Best Euro-Mediterranean Film | Sofia IFF, 2024 | Maia IFF, 2024 – Best Film | Pula FF, 2024 – Best Actor in Croatian Minority Co-production (Leon Lucev)

DIRECTOR’S BIO 

Mladen Đorđević (Belgrade, 1978) made his feature fiction debut with The Life and Death of a Porno Gang (2009), which was presented at over 50 international festivals and won 14 awards. Mitch Davis, a selector at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal, compared Đorđević to directors such as Gaspar Noé, Lars von Trier, and Michael Haneke, stating that The Life and Death of a Porno Gang did for Serbia what A Clockwork Orange did for Great Britain.

Đorđević graduated in Film and TV Directing from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, with his feature documentary Made in Serbia, which later premiered at the Belgrade Film Festival (FEST) and went on to cinema and DVD distribution in Serbia. He directed several short films (Living Dead, Hunger, Shaving Foam) and documentaries (Ali Hamad’s Story, Straight Through the Wind). Đorđević also wrote and directed one of the stories in the omnibus film Equals (2014), which premiered at the Sarajevo Film Festival, and the docudrama Vienna Hallways (2020).

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

My fourth film, like my first film, is about people and groups who are pushed to the margin or inhabit it willingly. The margin actually means freedom for them and this film features the voice of the suppressed.