The Serbian film Without by Luka Papić has won the International Competition Program for Medium and Short Films of the 51st edition of the International Documentary Film Festival Visions du Réel in Nyon, Switzerland. Papić’s film was made with the support of Film Center Serbia and the MEDIA – Creative Europe program. This was the world premiere of the film.
Belgrade painter Aleksandar Denić, in search of his lost dog, takes us on a journey through his vision of Serbia, a country in constant transition, where past and present constantly collide, churches rise next to communist monuments, and cheap apartment blocks sprout on ancient ruins. Wandering through these fragments of reality, it seems that both Aleksandar and Serbia are looking for their identities.
uka Papić explained the following about the film: “I had a draft for a screenplay about a painter who spends his nights looking for his lost dog and is the only character in the film without a dog – all people who are lucky have at least one and spend their days painting landscapes around unfinished churches around Belgrade, traveling with canvas as nineteenth-century painters. Then I suggested to Denić that he play the main role, that we use him as that character, taking some authentic elements from his life, and falsifying others similarly as he does in his paintings. Denić gladly accepted that, Đorđe Branković agreed to play his friend, a search assistant, we found characters who were willing to share their authentic stories about dogs and we started filming. ”
The author team consists of: Luka Papić (script, direction, camera), Srđa Vučo (screenplay, production), Jelena Maksimović (editing), Jakov Munižaba (sound), Branislav Jovancević (music), Dimitrije Stojanović, Dušan Šaponja (dog voices), Branka Majstorović (assistant director).
The film was made under the auspices of the production company Ranch production, while the co-producers are Non-aligned Films and Cinnerent. The film runtime is 63 minutes.