Electric YU-TOPIA

The three brothers were born right after WW II, together with the new Yugoslavia. As they were growing up, rock’n’roll came from “the West.” They formed a rock band and named it after Yugoslavia – The Yu Grupa. Ultimately, Yugoslavia broke up in bloody civil war, but the Yu Grupa long outlived the doomed country and still rocks. The film thematizes the moments in the history of Yugoslavia, weaving them together with the brothers’ personal struggles using intimate Super 8 home films blended with Yugoslav Film Archives footage spanning decades, collapsing barriers between epic and intimate, past and present, war and peace.

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Written and directed by: Darko Lungulov
Cinematography: Đorđe Arambašić, Stefan Đorđević, Petar Popović, Ivan Šijak, Andrija Hamović
Editing: Miloš Korać
Music: Petar Jelić
Producer: Darko Lungulov
Production: PAPA Films
Festivals and Awards: Grand Prix; Best editing; Best sound design (2023)

About the author:

Darko Lungulov graduated with a BFA in film and video from CCNY, New York. His debut feature film, Here and There, won the TRIBECA Festival 2009 Best NY Narrative Award and received critical acclaim from The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and The New York Times; won 20 awards at more than 50 international festivals. Darko’s next feature, Monument to Michael Jackson (2014), had its World premiere at Karlovy Vary with critical acclaim from Variety magazine. It won The Best Eastern European Award at its USA premiere at Santa Barbara IFF 2015. At Herceg Novi Festival 2014 won a Grand Prix “Zlatana Mimoza” award. Darko co-wrote Sundance 2016 official entry, A Good Wife. Darko’s feature documentary Yu Grupa — Trenutak sna /Electric Yu-topia (2023) received a Grand Prix at Belgrade Documentary IFF, as well as the Best Editing and Best Sound Design awards. The film was also selected for the IDFA 2023 festival’s Docs For Sale selection.