– The Serbian director’s tenth feature is a black comedy starring Ksenija Marinković as a disillusioned university professor trying to fit into a world that doesn’t want her
Actress Ksenija Marinković (© 2022 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa – fadege.it, @fadege.it)
Serbian director Srdjan Dragojević, whose films Pretty Village Pretty Flame and Wounds made an impression on the domestic market in the 1990s and who enjoyed international success with the 2011 Berlinale Panorama Audience Award-winner The Parade and most recently with 2021’s Locarno competition entry Heavens Above, is set shoot his tenth feature, International Women’s Day, in August and September.
Another addition to the auteur’s string of black comedies which he describes as visually and structurally reminiscent of Blake Edwards‘ The Party, the film follows anthropology professor Vesna (Croatia’s Ksenija Marinković, best-known for On the Other Side and Have You Seen This Woman?, now reuniting with Dragojević after Heavens Above), who’s pushing fifty and stuck in a routine without future prospects. Student protests are decimating her classes and colleagues treat her like an unpleasant part of the furniture. Her student son spends most of his time online, while her ex-husband started a new family some time ago. When she’s accidentally invited to address students at a protest, Vesna’s performance goes viral. However, what young people see as fun anarchy, her colleagues and ex-husband see as chaos. In the midst of this turmoil, she receives an invitation from the wife of the American ambassador to an exclusive reception on 8 March, hosting the circle of “powerful women” in the Balkans.
According to the press notes, International Women’s Day is a film about a woman trying to fit into a world that doesn’t want her, but it’s also about cultural imperialism served up in the guise of empowerment, and the price we pay when we stop pretending.
Written by Dragojević, the script is based on a short story by popular Macedonian author Rumena Božarovska. In addition to Marinković, the cast includes Bojana Novaković (best known for the Hollywood titles Birds of Prey, I, Tonya and Drag Me to Hell), Nada Šargin (appearing in Home this year), Hristina Popović (previously in The Parade) and Toni Mihajlovski (also in The Parade and recently seen in the series Black Wedding). The Load cinematographer Tatjana Krstevski is set to lens the picture.
International Women’s Day is produced by Biljana Prvanović for Serbia’s Delirium Films, in co-production with Marcian Lazăr for Romania’s Axel Film, Katya Trichkova for Bulgaria’s Contrast Films, Boštjan Virc for Slovenia’s Studio Virc, Julia Irene Peters and Jutta Feit for Germany’s JIPPIE Film, Jamila Wenske for Germany’s Achtung Panda!, Hrvoje Osvadić for Croatia’s Petnaesta Umjetnost, Milena Čaran for Montenegro’s Taurus Production and Elena Stanisheva for North Macedonia’s VEDA Film Productions, with Mike Downey on board as associate producer.
Madrid-based Latido Films will sell the film internationally.
