Father

Srdan Golubovic's 2020 Serbian film is about a father whose children are taken from him. Social services treat Nikola's poverty as grounds for saying he cannot care for them. Getting nowhere with the local authorities, he sets out to take his complaint to the ministry in Belgrade. On foot. The structure rests on that walk. Nikola meets people along the way; some help, some look away, most do not understand why he is walking. Goran Bogdan plays him with almost no dialogue, and the whole weight of the film sits on him. Golubovic presents poverty not as a malfunction but as the way institutions operate. Nobody acts in bad faith; everybody applies the procedure and the outcome is the same. The film was drawn from a real case and won the audience award in the Panorama section at the Berlin Film Festival. Who it's for: viewers who like socially realist Balkan cinema and quiet narratives built around a journey on foot. Who it's not for: viewers expecting resolution and justice; the film promises no gain against the system.