"Heavens Above" competing in Locarno

At the 74th Locarno Film Festival (August 4 to 14), the MDM-funded dark comedy "Heavens Above" by Serbian director Srdjan Dragojevic is having its world premiere via its entry in the Concorso Internazionale (International Competition).

In "Heavens Above", Srdjan Dragojevic tells three surrealistic stories highlighting societal changes overtaking the Balkan peninsula. The first episode, set in the year 1993 during the civil war, revolves around Stojan, a penniless man living in a refugee camp along with his wife and daughter. One day he awakens with a halo shining above his head, much to his wife’s dismay. In order to rid her husband of the halo, she persuades him to commit sins. This brings about an expected change of fortune for Stojan, which becomes apparent when he reappears in the other two episodes. The second story, set around the beginning of the new millenium, centers on the prison inmate Gojko, who is sentenced to death for an alleged murder. But on the morning of the day he is supposed to put in front of a firing squad, he finds himself shrunk to the size and appearance of a baby. In the final story, a gallerist in the year 2023 discovers that viewing the paintings by the impoverished artist Papiscs fills people’s stomachs. Soon, demand and prices for Papiscs’ nutritious art skyrocket.

Parts of the films were shot in the former prison of Weimar in fall of 2019. "Heavens Above" is a co-production by Delirium Films (Serbia) with Leipzig-based ma.ja.de. Fiction, Sektor Film (Macedonia), Forum Ljubljana (Slovenia), Studio Dim (Croatia), Max Film (Montenegro), and Novi Film (Bosnia-Herzegovina) in collaboration with ZDF/Arte (public TV networks). The project was realized with financial support from MDM; DFFF (German Federal Film Fund), Eurimages, Film Fund Serbia, Macedonia Film Agency, Slovenian Film Fund, and Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC).