The Serbian premiere of Nina Ognjanović’s film Where the Road Leads will be held on Monday, February 27th at 7:30 p.m. at the MTS Dvorana in Belgrade as part of the main competition program of the 51st FEST. The production was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia and Film Center Serbia.
The world premiere of the film was held at the Slamdance festival in the USA in January 2023, where it received the audience award and a special jury award for the best feature film.
Nina Ognjanović graduated in 2022 from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, at the department of film and television directing. Her short films New TV and Crying were shown at numerous festivals around the world.
On the occasion of the premiere of her debut film at the 51st FEST, this young author said: “I am proud to have the opportunity to show my first film to the local audience at a festival that has such a long and rich tradition as the Belgrade FEST. This is my graduate film, which was shot in very modest conditions, but with the support of a wonderful crew, talented cast and the villagers of Topli Do who hosted us all during the filming period. For most of them, this will be the first time they see the film, and I don’t think it could be better that it is shown in the Great Hall of the MTS Dvorana”.
The film is set in a forlorn, forgotten village near which a highway that will soon be built. In addition to the highway, a stranger also arrives in the village. The locals, mistrustful and fearful of the change that the highway brings, suspect that the stranger has something to do with it and is hiding his true intentions. A few misunderstandings and lies are enough for the townspeople’s intolerance towards the stranger to turn into an open conflict, and Jana, a girl from the village who fell in love with the stranger, realizes that she is the only one who can save him from the danger that looms over him.
The film stars Jana Bjelica, Zlatan Vidović, Vladimir Maksimović, Ninoslav Ćulum, Svetozar Cvetković, Branislava Stefanović, Igor Filipović, Pavle Čemerikić, Marta Bogosavljević, Eva Ras and Demijan Kostić.