A trans couple from 1990s Belgrade beholds their profession as a pacifistic mission – curbing the urges of rapists, gamblers and horny young men during turbulent times in war-torn Yugoslavia.
During the Balkans war in the 1990s, an accidental encounter with a trans sex worker in Belgrade inspired Serbian film director Zelimir Zilnik to make a ground-breaking film that went to win the Teddy Award in 1995 Berlinale.
Set in mid-1990s Belgrade—a city crippled by international economic sanctions, rampant crime, and violent ethnonationalism—Marble Ass is a comedic docufiction that highlights the city’s LGBTQ+ community as they challenge the toxic masculinity dominating their surroundings. The film follows Merlinka, a local trans sex worker whose weapons are not guns or knives, but sex and love. She serves as a matriarchal figure, imparting her wisdom to younger sisters—many of whom come from Belgrade’s trans and queer communities and portray fictionalized versions of themselves.
The film made a star out of the trans actor and encouraged many people to come out in a traditionally conservative country. For almost two decades the biggest queer film festival in Serbia is named in the honor of this actor/character – Merlinka.
The films of Serbian director Želimir Žilnik are both subversive and deeply humanist. Želimir Žilnik on how cinema can be a form of resistance.
After more than ten years, Želimir Žilnik returns to narrative filmmaking with Eighty Plus. Following the screening, Geert Mak will engage in conversation with Žilnik.
Early Works, Želimir Žilnik’s first feature film, recounts an allegorical story of young people who took part in the 1968 student demonstrations in Belgrade.
