Zagreb’s Subversive Film Festival returns

From May 20-26, Zagreb's Subversive Film Festival will screen features and host Q&A sessions aiming to tackle the big issues in the world today. The event has been running since 2008, with its inaugural run celebrating the protest movement of 1968. Since then, the activist-oriented festival has brought over a slate of impressive names, including philosopher Slavoj Žižek and American director Oliver Stone.

Opening this year’s festival will be Critical Zone, an Iranian-German co-production shot on the streets of Iran without permission from the government and which won the top prize at the Locarno Film Festival. Directed by Ali Ahmadzadeh, the film follows a drug dealer navigating Tehran’s underbelly over the course of one night. It was shot using a cast of non-professional actors, and the director was unable to attend the premiere of his award-winning film in Switzerland due to being prevented from leaving Iran by authorities.

This is tonally par for the course for SFF, which aims to expose and challenge audiences into dealing with questions of political power, freedom of expression and general issues that society is grappling with today. The remainder of the slate serves the same purpose, with documentaries and fiction films covering a range of topics from the experience of a young woman in Serbia during the wars of the '90s to The Beast, a science-fiction romance examining the power and sway of artificial intelligence.

Keeping in line with its worldview, all screenings – which take place either at Dokukino KIC or Kinoteka – are completely free of charge, and tickets can be picked up on location up to an hour before screening time. A full English-friendly schedule for the festival can be found here.

Where: Dokukino KIC, Kinoteka
When: May 20-26
Admission: All screenings are free of charge; first come, first serve