Devil’s Town

Colour, 35 mm
Serbia, 2009, 82 min
WP – World premiere
Section: East of the West - Films in Competition

Synopsis

Devil’s Town is a black comedy about modern Belgrade. The lives of various characters crosses on the day famous Serbian tennis players compete in an important tournament. A poor girl who tries to get hold of tennis equipment at any price, a businessman who can’t avoid corruption, a teenage bimbo looking for a rich husband, a wealthy teenager who can’t buy love, rich prostitutes who pretend they are happy, a taxi driver who blames the rest of the world for his personal misfortune… "Devil’s Town is a film about people driven only by their basic needs, deep instincts, obsessions, ambitions, fears and frustrations. Is their moral crisis merely a consequence of the hard times they have to live through, or is it the other way round?”, asks the director of the film.

About the director

Vladimir Paskaljević (b. 1974, Nis, Serbia) studied film direction in Belgrade. His short film Dolphins Are Mammals (Delfini su sisari, 1997) was screened at festivals all over the world and was awarded by the FIPRESCI jury at the Montreal IFF. His television documentaries, which he wrote, directed and edited, focus on the issue of the integration of Romany children into Serbian society. Paskaljević also wrote the novel BDSM, which deals with the absurdity of growing nationalism, and the collection of short stories The Optimists, on which his father, director Goran Paskaljević, based his award-winning film of the same name, which was screened at Karlovy Vary in 2007. Devil’s Town is the filmmaker’s feature debut as a director.