The Other Side of Everything

"The Other Side of Everything" is a documentary that combines a political history of Serbia since Yugoslavia was formed in 1918 (emphasising the post-communist period since 1989) with an affectionate portrait of the public life of one woman, her family and their apartment in a genteel neighbourhood in the centre of Belgrade - which was the capital city of Yugoslavia while it survived and is now the capital of Serbia. The woman is Srbijanka Turajlic, who loved Yugoslavia and whose daughter Mila Turajlic (who also briefly appears on screen) made the film.

The film weaves together many threads to create a political tapestry that I understand. Around the turn of the millennium, NATO completely changed its policy - from supporting Yugoslavia's leader Slobodan Milosevic on the basis that his remaining in office was the best guarantee of stability in the region to bombing Serbia from the air on the basis that the same man was the "Butcher of the Balkans", responsible for war crimes. I cannot recall news media (at the time or since) even reporting that an about-turn had taken place - let alone explaining it.

The film also shows how, over the decades, Srbijanka persistently spoke up in public in support of democracy and against sectarianism, how her criticism of the policies of Milosevic while he was leader led, in 1999, to her being dismissed from her job as a professor of engineering at Belgrade University and how, after his fall from power, she became minister of education.

Milosevic's associates are now back in power - to Srbijanka's dismay. She declares that she is too old to lead another public protest and that it is now the next generation's turn to act. She wonders aloud whether Mila might take up the baton. There is no need for the younger woman to reply in words; the film itself subtly perpetuates her mother's activism.

Just paying my respect to the director of the such a human work that today we see a few like this.

We as a Iranian especially aren't stranger to this situations. Our parents tell us about revolution and the war after that.

Hope that after about four years more people see this valuable documentary.

"Your generation need to find their way"

Thanks you mila Greetings from Iran.

Well filmed, with actual archive footage, honest and realistic.

The Other Side of Everything is a complex documentary about the last 100 years of the history of Yugoslavia (and later Serbia). But this is not your typical documentary. There are three intertwined stories in the movie. The first is about the Turajlic family - mainly about the movie director Mila Turajlic and her mother, Slobodanka, a university professor and political dissident. It tells the story of a family of intellectuals whose downfall started with the communist regime but was accelerated with the rise of Milosevic and later Vucic. The second storyline is about their apartment, which was split and partially seized by the communists. The family lives in their half of the original apartment, which is a testament to the history of both the family and the country. Finally, the third storyline shows historical moments that shaped the country, with an emphasis on the rise and fall of Milosevic's regime.

This is a brilliant documentary, and Mila Turajlic proves that she has a remarkable talent for telling a complex history of a country from a unique and complex perspective. This movie follows the turbulent history of Yugoslavia and Serbia and how it affected one family. It is a movie that anyone in Serbia could identify with, as everyone went through those struggles, and everyone at some point had similar thoughts of whether staying and living in Serbia was worth it or whether they should emigrate and never look back.

By the time I checked, there were two reviews of this title: One giving it a 1/10, criticising the use of "fictitious" or "distorted" facts in the film; the other giving it a 10/10 for the "realistic" approach. As a non-expert I will not be commenting the political content of this film, may others do it, scholars or eye witnesses. Yet it is an amazing documentary, weaving personal and historical content together into a strong storyline that is accesible at all times and moving in ways you did not expect. The director manages to tell the meta-story of Serbia while linking it to the micro-story of her mother, a way of story telling which is beautiful to watch but hard to pull of.