FLUCHTKINO

In autumn 2014, when the Balkan route was still open, Želimir Žilnik shot his docudrama on the situation of refugees in Serbia. Logbook Serbistan accompanies young men and families from African countries, Syria, Afghanistan and other places on their complicated routes up to the borders of the EU. From the perspective of the migrants, who are enacting their own stories, the film confronts us with discussions about sleeping places in refugee centers, negotiations with traffickers and taxi drivers, conversations between refugees and former Serbian guest workers and the assistance of refugees in the cleanup efforts after the catastrophic flooding in Serbia.
Sometimes being reminiscent of a road movie and profiting from a variety of spoken languages as well as from powerful usage of music, the mood vof this film alternates between the tragic, the absurd and the comic. It shows the strain and troubles of flight but turns its attention also on the creative power of the migrants, their self-organization, the flexibility of travel planning and the communications among each other as well as with the authorities and the local people. With Logbook Serbistan, Želimir Žilnik has created an extraordinary film on refuge, which does not only portray the people on the move but also diverse facets of the inhabitants of the villages and towns of a country that has its own experiences with issues of poverty and emigration.

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LOGBOOK SERBISTAN
written and directed by: Želimir Žilnik

camera: Miodrag Milošević, Orfeas Skutelis
edited by: Vuk Vukmirović
sound design: Filip Vlatković
music: Meho Puzić, Gabriella Benak, Milan Nenin
graphic design and animation: Nikola Berbakov, Aleksandar Ilić
producer: Sarita Matijević

participants:
Stanley Akumbe, Mohamed Lee, Ibrahim Karabo, Duru Jelad, Brian Schwarz, Guy Maestracci, Stojan Sjekloća, Alharake Mohammed, Bojan Milivojević, Yusuf Mona, Ali Ahmed, Husein Ahmed, Munir Hadžić, Leon Šurbanović, Radmila Đurica, Anika Lehki, Andrej Lehki, Srdan Ajvaz, Novica Tasić, Slavica Janjić, Katarina Rakić, Anda Đordević