Srbija/ Serbia/ 2020/94′
Sweden, Serbia, France, Germany, Belgium, Qatar/ 2020/ 94′
DIRECTED BY: Mladen Kovačević
SCREENPLAY BY: Mladen Kovačević
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Marko Milovanovic
EDITED BY: Jelena Maksimovic
MUSIC: Olof Dreijer
PRODUCER: Iva Plemic Divjak, Mario Adamson, Ruth Reid, Jasmina Sijercic, Heino Deckert, Thierry Detaille
PRODUCED BY: Horopter Film Production, Sisyfos Film Production, Bocalupo Films, ma.ja.de., Visible Film
FESTIVALS & AWARDS: International Film Festival Rotterdam; Sarajevo Film Festival (Winner – Heart of Sarajevo); Flahertiana Documentary Film Festival – FIPRESCI Award, Special Jury Award; Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival…
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Communist ideals have long lost their value in Yiwu, a city with 600 Christmas factories, in which Christmas as we know it is produced for the entire world. With rising wages, the workers in Christmas factories can now afford newest iPhones, but they still live in crowded dormitories. All migrants in their own country, nostalgic for some place far away, some miss their families left in hometowns, other miss their friends and lovers from the factories when they go home for holidays. Young generation is already tired of long factory hours, chemical fumes and glitter particles, and they do not care for their parents’ wishes to get educated. Stuck in between Chinese tradition and the newly discovered Chinese dream, they want their own businesses, to be rich, to be independent, to be in love.
Mladen Kovačević is a director and producer born in Serbia in 1978. He studied film directing in Belgrade, London and Cape Town. In just a few years after graduation, he directed several documentaries, most notable of which is his debut, Unplugged (2012), which screened at Visions du Réel in Switzerland and was awarded several prizes, including the award for best Serbian documentary film at the 2013 Beldocs.