Kostja, an American of Russian and Serbian descent, travels to the Balkans to visit his grandfather. On arrival he is met not by his grandfather but by Mr. Mića, a refugee who lives on the grandfather's property. With his grandfather in hospital, the purpose of Kostja's visit falls apart, and he sets out with Mr. Mića on a journey to his grandfather's empty house. Along the way, the realities of life beyond the globalized world are gradually revealed to him.

Cake and Men borrows the form of the classic road movie to portray an existence at a standstill: the world beyond urbanization, rural life in the Balkans, and family bonds stretched by emigration. Beneath the story, quietly but crucially, run the realities of displaced people, which the film places within the wider pattern of rural flight in Southeastern Europe. Written, directed, filmed, and edited by Aleksa Milojević, the film is performed by non-professional actors. Mića Stipić effectively plays himself, so his own experience becomes part of the story, blurring the line between documentary and fiction.

OUTPUT

Docu-fiction Road Movie

Experimental Cut, À l'autre bout de la ligne, screened at the Yale Student Film Festival

TEAM

Aleksa Milojević (Director/Writer)

Sahraa Karimi (Advisor/Editor)

Mića Stipić (as Mr. Mića)

Konstantin P. Kim (as Kostja)

Svetlana Spajić (Music)

Edited in the Documentary Film Workshop with Charles Musser and Sahraa Karimi, Yale University.

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