“I wanted to achieve some sort of hyper realism. There was almost no set design. Everything was done in ‘natural settings’ – real apartment, real building, and very little intervention”, said for his feature film White White World the film director Oleg Novković.

The filmsetting is located in a Serbian province, mining town Bor, scarred by transition. King (Uliks Fehmiu), an ex-boxer, who previously worked in the West (figure of “gastarbeiter”) runs a bar in this city, which streets are flooded by unemployed mine workers. In this setting, where the only chance for a young woman seems to be a “good-catch”, a beautiful teenager Rosa (Hana Selimović) falls in love with the emotionally stiff King. When her mother Ružica (Jasna Đurićić) is released from the prison, where she dwelt due to her assassination of her husband and Rosas putative father, despite of Ružica’s effort to make things better, the tragedy begins to unfold.

An intimate and social drama based on an excellent screenplay by Milena Marković, where every single figure (pensioner, drug addict, worker, traumatized alcoholic, orphan without perspective, etc.) is (via Bertold Brecht like songs) portrayed with his or her tragic hybris: in this world occupied by new Gods both too much or too little of self-determination have one and only outcome, a downfall.

Oleg Novković’s (1968, Belgrade, Serbia) sensitive film portrayals of ex-Yugoslavia’s ‘lost generation’ have won him the attention of international film festivals and audiences. Selected works: Kaži zašto me ostavi/Why Have You Left Me (1993), Normalni ljudi/Normal People (2001), Deca/Children (2002), Rudarska Opera/Miner‘s Opera (2005) and Sutra ujutru/Tomorrow Morning (2006). With his works Oleg addresses the problems of compromised morality in the post-civil-war culture, and harrowing choice between emigration and self-isolation that has tormented his generation. Serbian film critics proclaimed Tomorrow Morning for one of the most important Serbian films of the decade. The film White White World has been awarded at 63rd Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland for the best actress (Jasna Đurićić) and with the “CICAE Prix Art & Essai” by an international jury of independent cinema programmers, critics and distributors for the best art film; as well as at the Film Festival in Cottbus, Germany for the best film.

Milena Marković (1974, Belgrade, Serbia) is a theatre and screenplay playwright as well as poetess. She is based in Belgrade and belongs to one of the most internationally played as well awarded representatives of Serbian contemporary theatre. Already her drama Paviljoni/Pavillons (2001) with which she completed her theatre studies at the Belgrade Academy of Arts won attention of the international theatre scene. With her next piece Šine/Tracks (2002) she moved from naturalistic theatre towards a Berthold Brecht like fragment and music theatre form – the piece was played in Belgrade; Posen, Poland; Aachen, Germany and Chicago, USA. For The Puppet Boat (2006) she won the “Mihiz” award and for Nahod Simeon/Foundling Simeon (2007) she won the “Sterija” award. For her poetry volume Ptičje oko na tarabi/Bird’s Eye on the Fence (2009) she won “Đura Jakšić” and “Biljana Jovanović” award. Milena is teaching dramaturgy at the Belgrade Academy of Arts.