A dying father's secrets, a student's betrayal, and one woman's impossible choice — Balkan noir at its most suffocating.
While scouting locations for a shoot in Belgrade, Jelena, a young director makes up a story about Marija, a professor of political theory, whose dying father has revealed to her some medical files that could be of interest to several intelligence services. Marija has affection for Marko, a student - until she realizes that he had gotten close to her in order to learn her father's secrets. Marko explains that her father took part in Medical experiments in Africa, which led to deaths of many people in the Congo. Marija has no way of checking whether these allegations are true, because her father dies. She is faced with a dilemma: should she give her father's files to Marko or sell them to foreign intelligence services.
Writing
Layers fiction within fiction — director becomes unreliable narrator.
Direction
Belgrade itself feels like a surveillance state character.
Director
Jelena Marković
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film's Serbian title 'Država' carries heavier connotations than English 'State' — implying both nation and apparatus of control.
Marković shot in actual Yugoslav-era government buildings, blurring documentary and fiction in ways that spooked local crews who recognized the spaces.
RS
