Sofija Dimitrijević was born in 2001. At the age of fifteen, she published her first novel Tamo? I nazad? for which she received the Gašino pero award for the best novel in the region for the under-fifteen age group. She is the author of the first Serbian transmedia play #ĆaoSvima (Reflector Theatre). She was the dramaturge for the: Crime of the Goat Island, The Crucible, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Anne Christie, Melody, The Lesson, No one’s and Prezreli, plays directed by students of theater directing. She is the author of the play Rake, which had its own staged reading at the Cultural Institution Parobrod, and its premiere is scheduled for August at the Belgrade Drama Theatre. She is also the author of the play Bunnies or on Hoppers, which closed the Festival of International Student Theater (FIST), as well as the play Velike i male – komad o očevima which was recommended at the Radio Belgrade contest, with its premiere set to take place at Atelje 212. She is the author of the play Roe deer don’t bleed (an adaptation of the novel Sloboda Govora by V. Matijević, City Theatre Cacak). She worked as a dramaturge on the play Disco Pigs (The Yugoslav Drama Theatre). She is the screenwriter of several short films, notably Stains, Marks, Daća, Boy bitten by a lizard, and In the Thighs. A film based on her screenplay, Vera, the Eternal one was selected for the Bašta fest pitch. She worked as a critic and journalist for the Zoomer portal. She founded KAMEO – the first film festival in Čačak, showcasing short films from the region. She is a participant in this year’s ELIA Biennial in Milan. She was awarded the Josip Kulundžić award, presented by the Department of Dramaturgy.
Tara Mitrović was born in 2002 in Valjevo. After completing her third year at the Gymnasium in Ub, she enrolled in Theatre and Radio Directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. During her studies, she dramatized and directed the short story The Sea Change by Ernest Hemingway, exploring the theme of partner misunderstanding caused by the realization of (the other) sexual nature. She then adapted and directed Anna Christie based on the text by Eugene O’Neill, questioning whether the attitude towards victims of sexual violence has changed in the 112 years since the play was written, and if not, why. Will it ever change, and when? Her second-year exam production of Anna Christie represented the Faculty of Dramatic Arts at the Sterijino pozorje mladih in 2022 and closed the Days of Fighting Against Violence festival at the Faculty that same year. As part of her third-year exam, she directed the tragic farce The Lesson by Eugène Ionesco, addressing knowledge as a means of power abuse, inspired by the brave actions of former students of a pseudo-teacher of acting. That same year, at Bitef Theatre, in the production of the Festival of International Student Theatre (FIST), she directed the play Bunnies or on hoppers by Sofija Dimitrijević, and later, with a group of elementary school students, the play Until the Last Checkmate by Ljubiša Đokić. She directed four staged readings of texts by contemporary Serbian authors: at the Parobrod Cultural Center, the play Forget-Me-Not by Mina Petrić, at the Belgrade Summer Festival (BELEF) in Atelje 212, Manual for the Ideal Family by Pavle Dimitrijević, for the Days of Fighting Against Violence at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Everything Happened So Quickly by Lora Džolić and Hristina Mitić, and at Heartefact House, the winning play of the thirteenth Heartefact competition – A Woman Ties a Ponytail by Marija Rakočević. She assisted the director Lenka Udovički on the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams in a co-production of the Ulysses Theater, the Belgrade Drama Theater and BELEF. Then she was an assistant to Biljana Srbljanović at the thirteenth regional Heartefact competition for the best contemporary socially engaged play, and she assisted to Professor of Acting Marija Milenković in the work on the graduation play The Master and Margarita, based on the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov. She is currently a final-year student at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, majoring in Theatre and Radio Directing under Professor Dušan Petrović, and the recipient of the Dr Hugo Klajn award for the best student in Theatre Directing of her generation.
A year after the death of her husband—a judge and the president of the tenants’ assembly—Mirjana, a 59-year-old teacher living in an apartment building at 7 Bulevar despota Stefana, surrounded by neighbors who strictly observe house rules, decides to invite Lana, a 23-year-old sex worker who had been involved with her late husband. Initially driven by a desire for revenge and to regain control over the disrupted order of her life, Mirjana enters into this acquaintance, which soon evolves into intimacy and a complex power struggle. Through conversations with Lana, Mirjana gradually sheds the role of the bitter widow and enters into a relationship that becomes probing, intimate, and dependent. Throughout their meetings, Mirjana develops a need to “save” Lana from the world of sex work, violent relationships, and a lifestyle she sees as destructive. Lana makes it clear that her work is a result of personal choice and that she is not seeking salvation. Her refusal to be the object of someone else’s empathy triggers anger and a desire for control in Mirjana.
Mirjana’s inability to accept Lana’s autonomy turns into aggressive behavior—emotional, verbal, and physical. In her attempt to steer and redefine their relationship, Mirjana begins to replicate the very patterns of repression she herself has suffered, unaware of her own position of power. Meanwhile, the neighbors monitor their every meeting. Through walls, peepholes, and hallways, the building becomes a chorus of control—a communal voice that condemns, warns, and demands order. When they realize that Mirjana is breaking the rules of conduct—not only by making noise and rejecting her roles as a widow and tenant, but also through a forbidden sexual relationship with a younger woman—the neighbors decide to punish her.
The building functions as a chorus of moral judgment, expressed through gossip and tenant meetings. As the two women struggle to find a space for understanding, the apartment remains a battleground between two women, two generations, and two truths about choice and freedom.
The violence Mirjana experiences from her neighbors is not just physical—it is deeply psychological and systemic: social isolation, humiliation, and belittlement escalate into institutional threats and corporal punishment. At that moment, her crisis becomes a political act: a woman who has disrupted the order must be humiliated, controlled, and excluded. Lana leaves. Mirjana is left alone in a space that is no longer a home, but a shattered apartment where, for just a moment—with Lana’s help—she was able to confront herself.
The script was born as a participatory project co-shared by Sofija Dimitrijević with the director Tara Mitrović
