We’re delighted to exclusively announce Altered Innocence has picked up all U.S. rights to Vladimir Perišić’s feature film Lost Country, which was the winner of the Rising Star award at Cannes Critics’ Week and also an official selection of New Directors/New Films 2024. Set for a summer 2025 release, the film focuses on the complicated mother/son relationship between young Stefan who begins to question his blind love towards his mother after he witnesses political upheavals she’s responsible for. A release is planned for Summer 2025.
“Lost Country is a stunningly lensed film that explores mis-matched political views in a close-knit mother/son relationship,” said Frank Jaffe of Altered Innocence, who negotiated the deal with Alexandre Moreau from Memento. “How much can you love someone who wants to hurt your friends and gain political power? I’m very excited to distribute excellent coming-of-age films such as this one which you won’t soon forget!”
Here’s the synopsis: “Set in Serbia during the 1996 protests against Slobodan Milošević’s regime, Lost Country is a deeply personal coming-of-age drama by Vladimir Perišić, inspired by his own experiences. Fifteen-year-old Stefan (Jovan Ginić, winner of the Rising Star Award at Cannes Critics’ Week) faces a profound internal conflict as his peers rise against Milošević’s Socialist Party and his mother (Jasna Đuričić), a spokesperson for the government, becomes a symbol of corruption. Amid growing protests over electoral fraud, Stefan must reconcile his love for his mother with the mounting awareness of her complicity. Premiering to acclaim at Cannes and featured in New Directors/New Films, Lost Country crafts a poignant portrait of generational and moral reckoning, blending historical insight with personal reflection.”
Daniel Eagan said in our ND/NF preview last year, “The first feature by Vladimir Perišić since 2009’s Ordinary People, Lost Country takes place in Serbia circa 1996, a country verging on collapse during Slobodan Milošević’s regime. Building from an amazing reconstruction of period classrooms, courtyards, and chaotic demonstrations, Perišić reveals details in slow drips, focusing on characters’ faces instead of their actions or words. He has a great lead in Jovan Ginić, playing a 15-year-old whose dangerous attraction to his mother Marklena (Jasna Đuričić) blinds him to the fact that she is a key player in a corrupt government.”
See the trailer below.