When the Phone Rang

On a Friday in 1992, at 10:36 am, 11-year-old Lana is home alone when the phone rings. The message is brief, but changes her life forever—her grandfather has died. With his death, she also loses her country, the already fragmented Yugoslavia, which she must leave in a hurry. The phone call is the last memory of her old life.

Director Iva Radivojević returns to Serbia and draws on childhood memories to unravel a fateful moment from her past. She rallies old friends and neighbors to help re-enact scenes from her former neighborhood and moments from her youth. Rather than focusing on trauma, this measured and deeply personal film essay—told from the perspective of a child—explores moments of simple happiness: a botched haircut, singing with a friend, and the first stirrings of love for another girl.

Radivojević’s dreamlike 16mm scenes evoke what has been lost forever as they drift through the memories of Lana, a character whose story merges the director’s own experiences with those of countless other displaced people.