Press room

14 Jan – 25 Jan 2026

Barbican Cinema’s Hidden Figures programme returns in the new year with a celebration of the rarely seen war films of Mladomir Puriša Đorđević, a pioneer of Yugoslav cinema, who during his eight-decade career, ending with his death in 2022, made some of the most playful and satirical feautres of the 1960s and ’70s. 

Mladomir Đorđević’s unique style of filmmaking was known for its beautiful monochrome and colour photography, archive footage, socialist iconography and historical re-enactments. Some of his films were critical hits at major film festivals and went onto become key works of the Yugoslav Black Wave movement of the 1960s, known for its bold style and critical tone.

Curated by Dr Mina Radovic, this programme at the Barbican is the first time Đorđević’s four-part series of war films have been screened together outside of Serbia, and, seen in its entirety, is a compelling journey into the lives of everyday people living through a tumultuous time in history. 

The season opens with The Girl (Devojka) (1965),the first of Đorđević’s war films, which follows a young partisan couple, a town photographer, and a German officer whose lives intertwine in a fragile mix of love, conflict, and fleeting humanity.

The film’s dreamlike tone creates a surreal cinematic space where the living and the dead speak to one another, and enemies do not exist. 

This follows with The Dream(San) (1966), which was nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. Set in 1941, when Europe was mostly occupied, a young couple dream of a future life together, despite the threat of German invasion, knowing that their dreams cannot be taken away from them; and the power of love reveals itself in the most unlikely of circumstances. 

The Morning (Jutro) (1967) is the third and best-known part of Đorđević’s war films and picks up from where the events of his previous film The Dream left off – the first days of liberation. An ex-soldier must deal with former enemy collaborators and traitors even though the war has ended. The film is a meditation on war in peacetime and explores the effects of conflict on the human soul. 

The season concludes with Noon (Podne) (1968), Đorđević’s final war film in which a young Yugoslav girl falls in love and marries a Russian man in Belgrade. When tensions break out between Stalin and Tito – the leaders of their respective countries –  they are forced to go their separate ways. Nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, Noon explores a society out of time and place, and the hopes for a future that sadly never came to pass. 

Dr Mina Radović, the season Curator, comments: “It is a pleasure to partner with the Barbican to present the first-ever retrospective of Mladomir Puriša Đorđević and bring key new restorations to UK audiences. One of the great directors behind the Yugoslav Black Wave, Đorđević – who wrote and directed over 70 films across eight decades – is one of the most original, playful and subversive European artists of the last century.

Confronting an epoch while experimenting with the fabric of time and space, marked by unforgettable imagery, romance, humour and fascinating use of archives, Đorđević’s seminal cinematic achievement is a war tetralogy directed between 1965 and 1968 that centralises the experiences of ordinary people in the face of history and shows the far-reaching effects of war in the human soul. Lauded on their release yet rarely screened, these films and their director are ripe for rediscovery.”

Alex Davidson, Cinema Curator at the Barbican and the season’s Co-Curator, also says: “Even seasoned film lovers can feel the thrill of the discovery of a film director who they had never been aware of. I am so pleased curator Mina Radović introduced the war films of Mladomir Puriša Đorđević to me. They are a revelation, a series of sharp, satirical features that are sure to provoke plenty of debate, all beautifully restored, a feast for the eyes – and the brain.”

Hidden Figures is a regular Barbican Cinema strand, which celebrates filmmakers who, despite directing ground-breaking films, have been neglected in the canon of world cinema. Directors previously featured include Stephanie Rothman, Binka Zhelyazkova, Lina Wertmüller, Euzhan Palcy, Ha Gil-jong, Jacqueline Audry and Idrissa Ouédraogo.

Screenings

The Girl (Devojka) 
Yugoslavia 1965, Dir Mladomir Puriša Đorđević, 90min 
Wed 14 Jan, 6.30pm 
+ Sun 25 Jan, 12.30pm 
Cinema 3 

This multi-perspective stream of consciousness is a powerful reflection on human nature amidst the ravages of the Second World War, as a young girl falls in love. Told from several points of view, including the lovers, a photographer and German officer, this is a fragile mix of love, conflict and fleeting humanity. 

A bittersweet tale of love amongst brutality, the film established Mladomir Puriša Đorđević as one of the most original voices of the 1960s.
 

The Dream (San) 
Yugoslavia 1966, Dir Mladomir Puriša Đorđević, 93min 
Thu 15 Jan, 6.30pm 
+ Sun 25 Jan, 2.15pm 
Cinema 3 

It’s 1941. Europe is occupied and only the Serbian cities of Čačak and Užice maintain their freedom. But war comes knocking, and a couple’s dreams of a better future blossom as we discover the power of love in impossible circumstances.

Blending tradition and modernity, The Dream was nominated for the Golden Bear in Berlin and is an example of existentialist cinema at its best.


The Morning (Jutro)
Yugoslavia 1967, Dir Mladomir Puriša Đorđević, 84min 
Tue 20 Jan, 6.30pm 
+ Sun 25 Jan, 4pm 
Cinema 3 

The third and most famous film from Đorđević’s war series, The Morning is a landmark of the Yugoslav Black Wave that confronts the legacy and human cost of conflict.

Picking up where The Dream (1966) left off – the first days of liberation after the Second World War – a former soldier must face a new life while reckoning with enemy collaborators and executing traitors, as the battle within himself comes to the surface. A powerful meditation on war and peace, or rather war in peacetime, the film places human stories at its heart and is a critical reflection on the struggle that freedom brings.


Noon (Podne)
Yugoslavia, 1968, Dir Mladomir Puriša Đorđević, 82min 
Thu 22 Jan, 6.30pm 
+ Sun 25 Jan, 5.45pm 
Cinema 3 

Noon is a vivid mosaic of people’s lives in Belgrade during the spring of 1948. A shoe-shiner on Belgrade’s Slavija Square acts as our guide through the unfolding events that follow the Soviet-Yugoslav split – as a young woman from Yugoslavia and a young man from Russia are forced to part the day after their wedding.

The film explores the hopes for a future that never was, a society out of time and place, and deftly concludes Mladomir Đorđević’s four-part series, and is an inspirational reminder that all things are possible.