‘Another Spring’ Acquired by Taskovski Films Ahead of Karlovy Vary Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)

Leo Barraclough
·1 min read

London-based world sales agent Taskovski Films has acquired Mladen Kovačević’s “Another Spring,” which will have its world premiere at Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival in its new competition section, Proxima.

The film addresses the campaign to eradicate smallpox, one of the major medical achievements of human history. It was the world’s deadliest disease, killing almost 500 million people in the 20th century alone. The film focuses on the battle against the epidemic in Yugoslavia in 1972, one of the most horrifying and inspiring chapters in the eradication of the disease.

More from Variety

“Another Spring” is a medical thriller constructed from archive footage from the spring of 1972, when the smallpox virus was brought into Yugoslavia from a bazaar in Iraq. The disease was spreading for a month before it was discovered in Kosovo, while in Belgrade it remained undetected even when the first patients started dying.

Kovačević has directed four films: “Unplugged” (2013), which world premiered at Visions du Réel, “Wall of Death and All That” (2016), which also world premiered at Visions du Réel, “4 Years in 10 Minutes” (2018), which received a Special Mention at Visions du Réel, and “Merry Christmas, Yiwu” (2020), which world premiered at Rotterdam, and won best documentary at Sarajevo.

“Mladen Kovačević’s poetic approach is rooted in simplicity of realism; his films explore various styles with idiosyncratic dramatic structures and the unconventional approach to naturalistic esthetics,” Taskovski said.

The producer is Iva Plemić Divjak at Horopter Film Production.

Variety first reported on the project when it was at the work-in-progress stage at Visions du Reel.

Best of Variety

Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.