The world premiere of the Serbian feature film Another Spring by Mladen Kovačević was held last night, July 4th, at the Karlovy Vary Municipal Theater, as part of the newly launched competition program “Proxima” at the 56th Karlovy Vary international film festivale. At the premiere, the audience was addressed by the director Kovačević and Iva Plemić Divjak, the producer of this film. New festival screenings are scheduled for the 5th, 6th and 7th of July.
The film was supported at the competition by Film Center of Serbia. It focuses on the smallpox epidemic in Yugoslavia in 1972. According to the synopsis of the film: from a bazaar in Iraq, a deadly virus was introduced to Yugoslavia unnoticed. The infection spread for a whole month before it was discovered in Kosovo, while the number of infected people continued to increase in Belgrade hospitals.
How is it possible that the biggest post-war epidemic of the deadliest disease in human history hit Yugoslavia? Even today, smallpox is the only deadly virus that man has managed to eradicate, which is considered one of the greatest achievements of our civilization. In the ten-year fight against smallpox that united the whole world, the Yugoslav epidemic of 1972, as the last smallpox epidemic in Europe, is remembered as one of the most inspiring and exciting stories.
Mladen Kovačević is the screenwriter and director, the film was edited by Jelena Maksimović, the composer and sound editing supervisor is Jakov Munižaba, and the producer is Iva Plemić Divjak. The film was produced by Horopter film production, and the national co-producers of the film are Radio-television of Serbia and Cinnerent Production. Bocalupo Films from France is also a co-producer. Alongside Film Center of Serbia, the film was also supported by the Doha Film Institute.
Last April, the project of this Serbian documentary won an award as part of the “VdR-Industry 2021” program, the industry segment of the 52nd edition of the Visions du Réel (VdR) Documentary Film Festival in Nyon, Switzerland.