The Shifting Pictures film festival showcases European cinema that addresses contemporary societal issues. Four directors and their films will visit Prague, Belgrade, Bucharest, and Amsterdam. The festival aims to reflect on the inner threats facing Europe, such as the rise of right-wing politics, populism, and the challenges surrounding identity. The film screening of Landscapes of Resistance takes place in Serbia, and the conversation after will be livestreamed in De Balie.
Sonja Vujanović (97) was one of the first women who joined the partisan resistance movement in Yugoslavia. Inspired by the revolutionary books she received from a classmate, she became a partisan fighter in German-occupied Serbia in the 1940s. Ultimately, she was captured, tortured and taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau. There she became a member of the resistance and a leader of its combat unit.
For over 10 years, director Marta Popivoda and Sonja’s granddaughter and co-author of the film Ana Vujanović recorded their conversations with Sonja. What starts off as a celebration of one woman’s resistance gradually turns into a cinematic antifascist manifesto as the filmmakers become confronted with the rise of fascism in Europe today.
After this ‘powerful testament to the human spirit’ as The Screen review describes it, the director of the film is joined by 2 other film directors involved in the Shifting Pictures project for a conversation in Marta’s hometown of Belgrade, Serbia. The conversation will revolve around the role of art and artists in the fight against fascism, comparing the efforts and approaches of different generations of Europeans.