THE OTHER SIDE OF EVERYTHING

On 5 October 2000, protests attended by hundreds of thousands of individuals in Belgrade led to the downfall of Slobodan Milošević. Srbijanka Turajlić is one of the figureheads of the OTPOR, the democratic and anti-militaristic resistance against the nationalist dictator. The mathematics professor lives in a house that her grandfather had built, in an apartment whose one half has been inaccessible for the past 70 years, closed off behind a sealed door. While the family repeatedly returns to the theme of its Yugoslavian heritage, census data hints at ethnic affiliations. When friends come around for dinner these days, they still knock three times – like in the good old days, when that was the code one used to indicate it wasn’t the secret police dropping by instead. Srbijanka’s daughter Mila starts to ask questions, the camera always at the ready. While Srbijanka suggests she show more courage and initiative, Mila doubts whether it’s even worth staying in her native land any more.
Private materials collected over the course of decades are combined with footage of key moments from the history of Yugoslavia and then later Serbia. The result is an extraordinary and moving film that tells the story of a country from an unaccustomed perspective.