A Newsreel On Village Youth in Winter

Synopsis

Young people living in villages throughout Vojvodina, in their spare time: bars, dances, vine cellars. Outburst of life energy, and on the other hand, emptiness of life. This was Žilnik’s professional debut: it introduced his style of ‘’film provocation’’, ‘’wild realism’’, ‘’documentary fiction’’ and ‘’arranged document’’, later to become stylistic feature of all Žilnik’s films.

Director Biography

Born in 1942, based in Novi Sad, Serbia, his socially engaged films and documentaries in former Yugoslavia earned him critical accolades in the late 60s (“The Unemployed” 1968, Best Documentary at the Oberhausen festival, 1968; “Early Works”1969, Best Film at Berlin Film Festival), but also censorship in the 70s for his unflinching criticism of the government apparatus.
Low budget filmmaking and challenging political themes mark Žilnik’s prolific career that includes over 50 feature and documentary films and shorts. His power to observe and unleash compelling narratives out of the lives of ordinary people is the common thread throughout his documentary and docudrama work. More recently, his focus has shifted beyond the divided Balkans to question its relationship with the tightening controls of European borders, delving into the heart of issues of refugees and migrants.