There was a time, in 1996, when history could have turned out much differently in the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. And the film Lost Country by Vladimir Perišić deals with just such a moment, at the exact moment in time when the Serbian student demonstrations against then President Slobodan Milošević occurred. It was between 1996 and 1997 that university students and Serbian opposition parties organized a series of peaceful protests in response to electoral fraud by Milošević’s Socialist Party of Serbia. History has taught us what happened next, with the resulting bloody Balkan Wars, along with Milošević’s 2002 trial for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. But Perišić’s thoughtful film doesn’t just deal with the history of the Serbian director’s own country. It smartly focuses on the intimate story of one young student, 15-year- old Stefan (played by Jovan Ginic) who somehow needs to confront his beloved mother, spokesperson and accomplice of the corrupted government that his friends and classmates are rising against. It is a symbolic personal revolution he holds inside the four walls of his home, against the backdrop of the very public one going on in the streets. At the center of the film, is actress Jasna Djuričić as Stefan’s mother, a face familiar to world cinema lovers for her role as the Serbian translator in the award winning 2020 war drama Quo Vadis, Aida? Where Lost Country could lose a punch, Djuričić’s performance allows for the audience’s ambivalence, in judging a character that could be one- dimensional played by a lesser actress, thus aiding in the success of the story and the power of its message. Lost Country premiered in Cannes this year, as part of the Critics’ Week sidebar program. The film’s young star, Jovan Ginic won the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award at the festival. E. Nina Rothe