Netherlands 2024, 98 min, Croatian, Dutch and Serbian, Hebrew & English subtitles
Born in 1970s Sarajevo, Lidija had a happy childhood in a paradise of peace and brotherhood, yet her grandmother’s warning still echoes in her mind: “When everything feels right, put a stone in your shoe, so you have something to worry about.” Everything went wrong when Tito’s death violently shattered the illusion of solidarity in Yugoslavia. Lidija and her family left everything behind, immigrating to the Netherlands to start anew. Her decades-long self-documentation weaves together conversations with her aging parents and fast-growing Amsterdam-born son, reflecting the rising nationalism in the Netherlands and the increasing foreignness of Lidija’s fractured homeland. Drawing from an enormous family video archive, the filmmaker crafts a clever, funny, poignant, and relatable portrait of a perpetual refugee destined to never feel at home.
The screenings of this film have been made possible through the generous support of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Israel.
Previous Festivals: IDFA
