Serbian Film Festival UK: II. Edition
London: 7-10 March 2026
By Mina Radovic
Liberating Cinema is honoured to present Serbian Film Festival UK, returning for its second edition to London from 7-10 March 2026 – in collaboration with Serbian Council of Great Britain (Serbian Month 2026) and playing at Finsbury Park Picturehouse and Bertha Doc House, Bloomsbury – and celebrate the very best of Serbian cinema, discover restored classics and centenary exhibitions, and journey through the cultural relations between Serbia and the United Kingdom.
This year the festival spotlights Heritage for the Future, celebrating the history of Serbian cinema including the UK premiere of the first feature-length sound film Under the Yugoslav Sky (1934) across the 70th Anniversary of Vladimir Pogačić’s Belgrade noir Big and Small (1956) and Dušan Makavejev’s revolutionary debut Man is Not a Bird (1965), a great film of the Yugoslav Black Wave. The festival also marks significant anniversaries stretching back to the birth of cinema. Born in the same year as the movies – the festival marks 130 Years of Miodrag Mika Đorđević, early pioneer and director of Under the Yugoslav Sky.
Two Anniversaries are particularly special: the festival this year marks The Centenary of Pavle Vujisić – hailed by Orson Welles as the greatest actor of them all – and 80 Years of Avala Film, the oldest, largest and most prolific studio in Yugoslavia whose legacy ranks among Pathé, Ealing, MGM and Mosfilm.
The festival will also host a range of interactive in-person events including introductions, panels and Q&As with scholars and archivists, all curated and led by our founder and director Mina Radovic who will introduce the films and moderate the programmes.
We would like to thank our sponsors Serbian Council of Great Britain and our partners Finsbury Park Picturehouse and Bertha Doc House for kindly hosting the festival and the Yugoslav Cinematheque, Avala Film Way and Delta Video Belgrade for generously providing the films and images included in this programme.
Programme 1 – 70th Anniversary – Belgrade Noir: Big and Small (Vladimir Pogačić, 1956) + Introduction by Dr. Mina Radovic, 7 March 20:00 – Finsbury Park Picturehouse
Book: https://www.picturehouses.com/movie-details/000/HO00017527/belgrade-noir-vladimir-pogacic-s-big-and-small?filter=
Vladimir Pogačić is a master filmmaker, preeminent artist to emerge in the post-war period and prolific archivist – longtime director of the Yugoslav Cinematheque and president of FIAF.
Big and Small follows Pavle who – under police pursuit – attempts to transfer a group of illegals onto liberated territory. On the run and constantly moving hideouts help comes from where Pavle expects least.
Winner of Best Director at Karlovy Vary, nominated for the Golden Lion at Venice and garnering multiple accolades at the Festival of Yugoslav Film in Pula, Big and Small captures the city of Belgrade through marvelous chiaroscuro and makes for a bonafide noir classic.
Programme 2 – Pavle Vujisić 100: It is Better to Know How (Vojislav Nanović, 1960) + Introduction by Dr. Mina Radovic, 8 March 16:15 – Finsbury Park Picturehouse
Book: https://www.picturehouses.com/movie-details/000/HO00017528/pavle-vujisic-100-it-is-better-to-know-how?filter=
Hailed by Orson Welles as the greatest actor of them all, Pavle Vujisić – born in 1926 – is an icon of Serbian stage and screen and the most recognizable face of Yugoslav cinema, starring in over 150 films.
It is Better to Know How follows Mane Karakas (Vujisić) who arrives in a small seaside town on an assignment and tries to bring cheer to the locals. Misunderstanding his intentions, the newspaper announces a music festival.
One of the most beautiful colour films and the last motion picture directed by Vojislav Nanović, a pioneer of the classical studio era, It is Better to Know How reveals the great character of Pavle Vujisić – charismatic, jesting, larger-than-life – in one of his earliest roles and shows him doing what he does best: bringing joy to people.
Programme 3 – Avala Film at 80: Man is Not a Bird (Dušan Makavejev, 1965) + Q&A, 8 March 19:00 – Finsbury Park Picturehouse
Book: https://www.picturehouses.com/movie-details/000/HO00017530/avala-film-at-80-du-an-makavejev-s-man-is-not-a-b?filter=
The oldest, largest and most prolific film studio in Yugoslavia – comparable to Pathé, Ealing, MGM and Mosfilm – Belgrade’s Avala Film heralded in a golden age of cinema and is the tour de force behind iconic films spanning the epic and the avant-garde.
Man is Not a Bird follows Jan, an engineer, who falls for Rajka, a hairdresser, whose love is complicated by the arrival of a third party and myriad of characters in an industrialised mining town.
“The impact of this debut feature in Serbian cinema is so striking that even today it appears to be a revolutionary work” writes film historian Sergio Grmek Germani about Makavejev’s film, a bold free-form vision scored to Beethoven’s 9th, that shows not only a major director emerge but also invites rediscovery of the major studio behind the Yugoslav Black Wave.
Programme 4 – Under the Yugoslav Sky (Miodrag Đorđević, 1934) + Introduction by Dr. Mina Radovic, 10 March 18:20 – Bertha Doc House Bloomsbury
Book: https://dochouse.org/event/under-the-yugoslav-sky/
The first feature-length sound film produced in Yugoslavia is a poetic and innovative documentary that offers unique insight into the life of a united kingdom. This screening celebrates 130 years since the birth of the director.
Under the Yugoslav Sky by Miodrag Đorđević is a cinematic voyage that transports its viewers on a journey through the country – from Belgrade to Zagreb, Sarajevo to Ohrid, Bled to the Adriatic.
Showcasing the diversity of people, culture and landscape and marked by the motifs of a journey down river and Dantean narration, the film also features the first sound recording of the Islamic call to prayer on film.
Serbian Film Festival UK
First Edition
7-9 March 2025
