Filmmaking promotes connection in Serbia – Chinadaily.com.cn
Filmmaking promotes connection in Serbia
Xinhua |
Updated: 2026-09-12 10:50
More than an hour before the launch ceremony for the Chinese Cinema screening event in the Serbian capital began last week, the Chinese Cultural Center, which seats about 150 people, was already packed.
Serbian and Chinese filmmakers, officials, local Chinese culture enthusiasts, and film lovers from China and Serbia gathered for the launch ceremony. The event brought Chinese films to Serbian audiences and created opportunities for filmmakers from both countries to meet and exchange.
For Chinese director Song Wen, however, the event meant more than the launch of a film program.
Long before becoming a filmmaker, Song was a teenager captivated by cinema. One film that left a particularly deep impression on him was The Bridge, a Yugoslav classic that became familiar to generations of Chinese viewers.
“I was fascinated by films when I was in middle school,” Song recalls.
“At that time, The Bridge was frequently shown on television. It was one of the films that had a particularly deep influence on me in my early years,” Song adds.
Decades later, Song came to Serbia not only to bring Chinese films to local audiences, but also to discover what a new generation of Serbian filmmakers has been creating.
Zhang Zhe, charge d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Serbia, says Yugoslav classics such as The Bridge and Walter Defends Sarajevo are household film titles in China.
Film, he says, is one of the most direct and vivid forms of cultural expression, a language that can cross borders and connect people from different nations.
The launch of Chinese Cinema, he says, has built another “bridge of light and shadow” between the peoples of China and Serbia.
Zhang Songwen, one of China’s best-known actors, describes film as “an invisible road” that allows stories to travel through time and people’s eyes to reach distant places.
The opening of Chinese Cinema, the actor says, was not merely the establishment of a screening space, but also a window through which Serbian friends can learn about China.
He hopes more Chinese films will be shown in Serbia, and that more Serbian films will reach Chinese audiences.
The event concluded with a screening of Xie Fei’s A Mongolian Tale, a 1995 film that tells a story of love, identity and life on the Inner Mongolian grasslands.
Dragoljub Bajic, acting director of the National Theater in Belgrade, made the exchange event more tangible when he performed the famous song, Beautiful Night, with a distinct Serbian touch.
The exchange continued beyond the screen. Song and other Chinese filmmakers traveled to Serbia’s western city of Zlatibor to attend the second National Film and Television Festival, known as NAFFIT, last week. They also donated audiovisual materials to the Yugoslav Film Archive on Monday.
“I hope to discover works by young Serbian students and young directors at the festival,” Song says.
“I would like to bring these works back to China, so that Chinese audiences can learn what young people in Serbia are interested in,” Song adds.
Miroljub Stojanovic, editor of publishing activities for the Film Center Serbia, says he looks forward to deeper exchanges and dialogue between the two sides, believing the visit would open broader space for cooperation in cinema.
A Yugoslav film once opened a door into the world of cinema for a generation of young Chinese filmmakers, including Song.
Decades later, Chinese films appear on Serbian screens, while Chinese filmmakers look for new Serbian stories to carry home.
The bridge is now becoming a two-way exchange, with filmmakers, works and stories crossing borders in both directions.
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