The Balkan Cowboy

Premiering at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival (August 14-21), The Balkan Cowboy is a magical doc feature debut from acclaimed visual artist Dragana Jurišić, an “exile not an expatriate” long based in Ireland. Returning to the site of her homeland that vanished “like Atlantis in the realm of imaginary places and people,” as she narrates in VO, Jurišić captures the fracturing of Yugoslavia through the story of Harry Jackson, a cult director of Westerns, family friend and childhood hero (despite her iconoclastic idol repeatedly noting that she had “such an ugly name for such a pretty girl.” Though she goes on to explain that her distinctly Serbian moniker was bestowed by her dad just to piss off his Croatian nationalist father, and that rather than change it she decided it was wiser to change the country).

To read the rest and subscribe for free visit Beyond Nonfiction on Substack.

Yugo Goes to America

I’ve now taken my Sisyphean battle against streamer slop to Substack as well, posting pieces on an inspiration-strikes timeline! For my inaugural exclusive I’ve decided to review one of the most bonkers docs I've seen so far this year. The road-tripping Yugo Goes to America, in which a trio of buddies from Belgrade make their way across the US in a Soviet-era Yugo (widely deemed the worst car ever built), next plays the Sarajevo Film Festival. Note to US fests and distributors: Please import. (Note to readers: Please read for free and subscribe.)

Revolutionaries Never Die — Mohanad Yaqubi [Locarno ’26 Review]

Mohanad Yaqubi’s Revolutionaries Never Die is the Palestinian filmmaker and archivist’s cinematic “answer” to the pioneering Lebanese journalist and filmmaker Jocelyne Saab’s invitation to collaborate, a request sent via email in 2018. Unfortunately, Yaqubi was unable to respond before Saab passed away several months later, leaving behind a storied career spanning documentary and fiction (and docu-fiction) filmmaking, as well as photography and video art.

To read the rest visit In Review Online.