There’s lesser-seen and then there is Srđan Karanović’s Virgina (Virdžina). But the 1991 Serbian feature is being wrested from dark corners of film history by Altered Innocence, who will release the new restoration at Metrograph on October 23 after its world premiere at the Frameline LGBTQ+ Film Festival. Ahead of this, we’re please to exclusively debut their new trailer.
Completed in June 1991 as Yugoslavia descended into war, Virgina became a long-term victim of its nation’s larger tumult. But after queer film historian-filmmaker Jenni Olson located surviving elements in France, the Belgrade-based rights holder Centar Film initiated a new 2K restoration in collaboration with the Yugoslav Film Archive—a proper second chance at life. Said restoration was completed by the Department for Digitisation and Digital Restoration of the Yugoslav Film Archive in Belgrade based on a scan from a 35mm internegative using an ArriscanXT scanner with archival gate overscan, with color correction by Masha Badalić under the supervision of director Srđan Karanović. Audio was sourced from the original 35mm mono sound negative and restored by the Sound Department of the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad.
“Virgina feels astonishingly contemporary for a film made more than three decades ago,” said Frank Jaffe, founder of Altered Innocence. “Its exploration of gender, identity, and social expectation remains deeply resonant, while its disappearance and rediscovery only add to its power. We’re honored to help bring this remarkable and long-unavailable work to North American audiences.”
Here’s the synopsis: “In the rugged mountains of a 19th-century Balkan village, a fourth girl is born to a poor family ‘cursed’ by superstition to bear no boys. In a culture where family honor outweighs individual desire, the baby girl is raised instead as the ‘virdžina’ Stevan, with the rights and responsibilities of a boy, to become the family’s sole heir. ‘Better a rooster for a day than a hen for life.’ his mother says. Stevan grows into a handsome young man carrying the weight of a destiny chosen for him, but as first love stirs and tragedy unfolds in the village, Stevan is pushed to rebellion against the role he’s been forced to play. Virgina (Virdžina) offers a captivating look into the workings of misogyny, gender, and sexuality in late 19th-century Serbia and unfolds as a sensual, haunting tale of identity, duty, and rebellion—a clash between the rigid codes of tradition and the unstoppable pull of the self.
Watch the preview below:
The post Exclusive Trailer for Srđan Karanović’s Virgina Restores a Long-Lost Work of Queer Serbian Cinema first appeared on The Film Stage.
from The Film Stage https://ift.tt/PKYT4hj
0 Comments