Schedule:
6:45 PM - Working Class Goes To Hell
Five years after a factory fire claimed the lives of several workers and, with them, the primary livelihood of a rural Balkan town, the plant's union is met with a debilitating blow in their fight for reparations. Long suspected of causing the fire in order to privatize their property, the owners have successfully evaded legal consequence, and the workers are cast as ungrateful nuisances, obstinate in the face of capitalistic progress. Stoic labor leader Ceca (Tamara Krcunović) refuses to give up hope, but her position grows tenuous as the collective develops a fascination with the pagan practices of its newest member, Mija (Leon Lučev). After Mija leads the union in a ritual that belies a satanic undertone, strange occurrences are reported around town, including the enigmatic manifestation of a decrepit man seen stalking the most corrupt citizens. Serbian vanguard filmmaker Mladen Đorđević (THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A PORNO GANG) once again offers up a view of the disturbing absurdities of living under an oppressive oligarchy. As his proletarian protagonists turn toward the supernatural, he skillfully soaks their increasingly eldritch activity in an absorbing chiaroscuro horror aesthetic, conjuring a malaise of uncomfortable dread. Yet Đorđević also impressively cuts this tone with sly satire, reminding the viewer that sometimes the only salvation for the working class, besides solidarity, is a sharp sense of humor. (Note adapted from Toronto International Film Festival.) DIR/SCR/PROD Mladen Đorđević; PROD Milan Stojanović. Serbia/Greece/Bulgaria/Montenegro/Croatia/Romania, 2023, color, 127 min. In Serbian with English subtitles.
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