Without Borders: Contemporary Serbian Documentary Cinema Series with Aron Sekelj

21/01/2026

This January, join us for our first encounter with Serbia's documentary film scene. We'll meet Aron Sekelj, a Belgrade-born filmmaker (b. 1988) who holds a BA in Film Directing from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade and an MFA in Film from the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg.

Together, we'll explore his work at the intersection of documentary and experimental cinema, and discuss the broader landscape of independent filmmaking in Serbia. The evening will conclude with a screening of his film Landscapes of War, Landscapes of Peace.

18:30 Door open
19:00 Short introduction by Aron Sekelj

19:30 Screening of “ LANDSCAPES OF WAR, LANDSCAPES OF PEACE”

20:10 Q&A and conversation with the filmmaker

LANDSCAPES OF WAR, LANDSCAPES OF PEACE

Original Title: Pejzaži rata, pejzaži mira

Year: 2017

Duration: 49 min

Countries: Germany, Serbia

Production Companies: Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg, Non-Aligned

Films

Colour: Colour

Language: No Dialogue / Subtitles: None

Festivals: Beldocs IDFF 2017, DokuFest Prizren 2017, Pravo Ljudski Film Festival

Sarajevo 2017 East Silver Market 2017 – Jihlava IDFF, Martovski Festival Belgrade

2018, Dokumentarfilmwoche Hamburg 2018, Museum für Gegenwartskunst

Siegen - Film Programme “Landscape of War“, 2018, 2018 / Berlin Revolution FF

2021 / FLIGHT / Mostra Internazionale del Cinema di Genova 2021

Awards:

Beldocs 2017 – Serbian Competion Programme – Best Editing Award

Berlin Revolution FF 2021 - Best Feature Film

FLIGHT / Mostra Internazionale del Cinema di Genova 2021 - Best Short Non

Fiction Film

About the author:
Aron Sekelj was born in 1988 in Belgrade, Serbia. From 2008 to 2012, he studied a BA in Film

Directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade (Fdu Beograd), with one

collaborative feature-length film, “Where is Nadja?”, and numerous short fiction,

documentary and experimental films completed over the course of these four years. In

2012, he moved to Hamburg, Germany to pursue a MFA degree in Film at the

University of Fine Arts (Hochschule für bildende Künste), graduated in 2016 with the

experimental documentary project “Landscapes of War, Landscapes of Peace”.

He is a member of the Association of Documentary Filmmakers of Serbia “DOK Serbia” since

2017 and the organization of Serbian Film Authors “UFUS AFA Zaštita” from 2024.

He is a jury member at Beldocs IDFF 2019 (Short Film Jury), Holywood Serbia Film Festival

2019, MikroFAF 2021 and High Coast IFF 2022. Artistic Director of Open Spaces -

Rudnik Festival of Innovative Cinema since 2022 and member of the pre-selection team

for Beldocs IDFF since 2023. Currently living and working in Belgrade.