BOTTLEMEN

FLAŠAROŠI

Serbia, Slovenia | 2023 | 82 min

Seven thousand years ago, Vinča, a Belgrade suburb constantly expanding along the Danube, used to be the cradle of European Neolithic culture. Today, one of the unhealthiest landfills in Europe is thriving just a few kilometres away. The place is enveloped in smoke when a group of firemen are trying to quench the umpteenth fire, one of the sources of contamination that over the past five years has made Belgrade one of the most polluted cities in the world. With thousands of seagulls in search of food and the fumes that seem to exhale from a volcanic area, a group of men led by rom Yani (who reports to an invisible boss himself) make a living by collecting plastic bottles and aluminium sheets while other groups do not hesitate to steal each other’s large sacks, the loot. At a safety distance, we watch this pornography of misery, the cross section of a post-apocalyptic world which is our present too. (a.s.)