SYNOPSIS

A postcard from the past, a fleeting memory, a dream – Flatlands returns to Ruski Kerestur, a Ruthenian village in Vojvodina, Serbia. Once a place of escape, it now calls the filmmaker back to gather what remains before it fades. After the 2024 protests, the village becomes the first where the student-led opposition wins, and a place defined by routine shifts quietly, yet with lasting weight. As the author’s reserve turns to quiet compassion, the film reflects on home, memory, and a reality now unexpectedly awakened.

INTENTION

(Re)searching for home – the one I had to leave, in a place where I never fully belonged. After thirteen years, I return to Ruski Kerestur with my camera, trying to hold onto what feels at risk of disappearing: the guardedness, the sharp edges, but also the tenderness – small gestures of care and quiet resistance. Each return reveals another layer; each departure carries the certainty that I will come back. This rhythm shapes the film.

Fragments of summer – nostalgia and remembrance – are interrupted by the voices of student-led protests, a collective awakening unlike anything I had witnessed before. Something shifts in my village, a place once at the edge of the world, now stirred into motion-roots of small fires I carry with me.

Layer by layer, I build an imagined archive: an inner landscape composed of 16mm and 8mm footage, photographs, protest images, and sounds placed side by side, shaped by memory and unrest.

The film remains open, without a fixed ending-only a hope that this shift will leave a tangible mark of change. On the country. On me. On the film.