The Load / Teret, a narrative film (2018, Ognjen Glavonić) | a film screening and discussion

*** Note new date, time, and location. ***

Kino Nights is a new curated series of themed monthly screenings and conversations hosted by the Melikian Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies. The series features present-day groundbreaking documentary and narrative cinema from Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, contextualized in timely conversations with scholars and artists. The screenings and conversations are free and open to all to attend.

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The Load
During NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, Vlada, a truck driver, is hired to undertake a treacherous path across his war-torn country and deliver mysterious cargo. On a journey where friend and foe prove indistinguishable, Vlada comes to realize the horrifying ramifications of his mission.

"At both the film’s opening and close to its end, bombs are seen from afar—streams of what look like fireworks that ascend and descend but never burst into color. The characters in this atmospheric, gripping film don’t respond to the sight in any way; (...) It’s one of the themes of the movie, the first fiction feature written and directed by Ognjen Glavonic: how people adapt to ambient atrocity, muffling it to the point that they pay it hardly any notice.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/movies/the-load-review.html 

View the film's trailer here. 

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The screening will be followed by a conversation featuring: the film's director, Ognjen Glavonić,  and cinematographer, Tatjana Krstevski, both in person; Keith Brown, Professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies and Director of The Melikian Center; Blerim Zeqiri, CEO of Radix, a tech company of Kosovo and the U.S.; and Ljubomir Filipović, doctoral student in the School of Politics and Global Studies.

The discussion will be facilitated by Melikian Center affiliates Luiza Parvu, Assistant Professor, and Toma Peiu, Faculty Associate in the Poitier Film School.

Ognjen Glavonić was born in 1985 in Pančevo, SFR Yugoslavia. His short films have been selected for more than 50 international film festivals. Zivan Makes a Punk Festival (2014), his first documentary, had its premiere at Cinéma du Réel and has been screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, CPH:DOX, and IndieLisboa, among others. Ognjen’s documentary Depth Two (2016) had its premiere in the Forum section at the Berlinale, and was named best film at Festival dei Popoli, DokuFest, Message to Man, Open City Docs Fest, ZagrebDox, and Kassel Dokfest. He is the founder of the Pančevo Film Festival. The Load is his narrative feature debut.

Tatjana Krstevski is a Local 600 director of photography and a Professor of Cinematography and Head of the Cinematography Department at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Graduate Studies. She has delved into an array of art forms, graphic design, animation, acting, music and history of arts, honing her craft and pushing the boundaries of visual storytelling on an international scale. Tatjana embarked on a global creative journey, lending her expertise to a spectrum of projects across continents, including Europe, China, and the USA. In 2014 she co-founded international “Pancevo Film Festival” and acted as its Artistic Director, guiding and curating a platform for cinematic excellence. Her feature film The Load made a debut at the 71st Cannes Film Festival in 2018, amassing an array of over 30 international awards. Depth Two premiered at the Berlinale Film Festival in 2016, garnering over 20 international awards, including 8 main prizes.

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In 2025, Kino Nights features bold films that address personal and collective trauma. Our line-up includes documentary and fiction films that touch on historical events that have left scars in the consciousness of the filmmakers, and their audiences. The works we present go beyond the descriptive to evoke the unthinkable and process the shock and horror without exploiting it, by using a distinct cinematic language. They create sensory experiences, spaces of shared imagination and affect that put audiences in fellowship with people, places and events of rupture, punctuated by violence, genocide, or catastrophe that reverberate long after they have unfolded. 

#OgnjenGlavonic #GoldenPramAward #Serbia #Kosovo