– The Serbian helmer’s third film, a secondary-school bullying drama, is set to world-premiere in the Czech festival’s Crystal Globe Competition
Jovan Ginić in 3 Weeks After
Serbian filmmaker Miroslav Terzić made a name for himself with drama-thrillers such as Stitches (Europa Cinemas Label Award and Panorama Audience Award at the 2019 Berlinale) and Redemption Street (Best Debut Feature at Cottbus 2012). Now, he returns with 3 Weeks After, a drama about violence among secondary-school students, which is soon set to world-premiere in Karlovy Vary‘s Crystal Globe Competition (3-7 July – see the news).
As per the press notes, the story was inspired by several true events but is not a reconstruction of any one single case. What begins as an ordinary high-school trip gradually exposes the tensions, alliances and unspoken cruelties within a seemingly ordinary class. When their bus breaks down, a group of students and their teachers become stranded in a remote, crumbling hotel. Among them is Zoza, haunted by the recent suicide of his best friend, Andrija. As old wounds resurface and the group’s fragile hierarchy begins to crack, the trip turns into a confrontation with guilt, silence and the need to belong.
“If we live in a world where violence has become a normal form of communication, we cannot be surprised when children start speaking that same language,” says Terzić. “What happens in one classroom is not an isolated incident; it is a reflection of the world we have created for them.”
The cast is led by a combination of young actors – such as Jovan Ginić (Lost Country), Klara Karaulić (How I Learned to Fly) and Andrija Marković – first-timers like Andjela Alavirević, and regional stars like Tihana Lazović and Branislav Trifunović, who is also a producer on the film. The screenplay was written by Serbian author Vladimir Arsenijević, and co-written by Terzić and Bojan Vuletić. Stitches cinematographer Damjan Radovanović returns as DoP, Croatia’s Marko Ferković edited the picture, and the music was composed by Belgrade-based LP DUO.
3 Weeks After was co-produced by Snežana von Houwelingen and Trifunović for Serbia’s This and That Productions, the Kalinov Brothers for Bulgaria’s Invictus, Ines Vasiljević and Stefano Sardo for Italy’s Nightswim, Ankica Jurić Tilić for Croatia’s Kinorama, and Paul Thiltges and Adrian Chef for Luxembourg’s Paul Thiltges Distributions.
