It’s spring 1992 in Novi Sad. The phone rings – once, twice, and then over and over again. Each of these calls triggers a different memory. Eleven-year-old Lana relives a series of final moments during her escape from war. It’s as though fragments of the former Yugoslavia constantly resurface to haunt her.
In her autofictional experimental film, Iva Radivojević pieces together shifting memories of a defining moment. Shot on analogue 16mm film, extraordinary and mundane moments are made visible and palpable, even as they remain forever lost in an intangible past. The taste of a first cigarette, a glimpse through binoculars into a neighbour’s apartment, a last dance; the warmth of her friend Mirjana, the closeness of her body, her wild curly hair. Sensory traces of a lost world survive – because they mark a departure. This evocative film reaches beyond the personal, inviting reflection on collective experiences of displacement. How do we process trauma, departures and fractured identities? How can film capture overlapping perceptions of time, uprooted emotions and defining experiences? Radivojević’s playful non-linear storytelling creates an empathetic space – one that takes childhood memories seriously.