The Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, Brankica Janković, has determined that the Cultural Center “Svetozar Marković” in Jagodina — headed by director Zorica Stojinović, who has since been dismissed — violated Article 6 of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination by refusing to screen "Next to Us" (Pored nas), a film by Stevan Filipović.

Stevan Filipović

After its Belgrade premiere at the end of last December, the third part of Stevan Filipović’s popular trilogy entered regular cinema distribution. Instead of the large viewership that had been expected, the film encountered opposition and outright bans on screenings in many cultural centers across Serbia. It is assumed that the director’s outspoken social engagement and refusal to compromise in his public appearances — well known to audiences, as well as to readers of our paper, where he occasionally contributes — directly provoked a case of censorship unprecedented in recent years.

A series of bizarre explanations followed for why Next to Us was being refused, as detailed in screenwriter Minja Bogavac’s column Censorship on Steroids. Yet the Jagodina Cultural Center reached a new low with a particularly strange and inappropriate exchange between the film’s author and the center’s director. When Filipović directly asked why his film had not been shown in Jagodina, director Zorica Stojinović responded to him via Instagram (!) saying that the film was so “bad” that it had “no qualities other than being gay, so we won’t be showing it,” as the message explicitly stated.

Following this response, a formal complaint was filed by Hristifor Marković. Only several months later did Commissioner Brankica Janković conclude that this constituted a violation of Article 6 of the Anti-Discrimination Law and amounted to a de facto ban on the film’s screening.

A scene from the filming

In her statement, the Commissioner ordered the Jagodina Cultural Center to allow a screening of Next to Us in order to remedy the effects of discrimination; to strictly comply with anti-discrimination provisions in the future; and to inform her office within 30 days about the implementation of these recommendations. Failure to do so, the statement added, could result in a formal warning and a public disclosure of non-compliance.

Although there have been occasional attempts in recent decades to withhold or block certain films, the case of Next to Us stands as one of the rare, clearly documented examples of an outright ban on a film screening in contemporary Serbia. While the situation evokes comparisons with the era of Yugoslavia’s so-called “Black Wave,” when films were systematically shelved and removed from circulation, this case in fact raises a deeper question — about the total suppression of artistic freedom and the reemergence of cultural censorship in the country. And it seems this may only be the beginning.

Published on Radar.rs, September 30, 2025.