OUR FATHER

SYNOPSIS

After years of self-destructive addiction, thirty-two-year-old Dejan arrives at an isolated monastic community led by the stern yet charismatic Father Branko. Here, addiction is confronted through work, discipline, obedience and faith. Immersed in a strict daily routine and guided by his humble mentor, Mionica, Dejan embarks on a painful journey towards recovery.

But when a disturbing video emerges, showing a patient enforcing the rules through brutal violence, the outside world’s attention turns towards the community. Dejan is forced to make a wrenching choice: defend the system that has given him back a sense of purpose and direction, or confront a truth he can no longer evade.

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DIRECTOR’S NOTES

The story is inspired by a real incident that took place more than a decade ago, when a video revealed the brutal punishments inflicted on a patient at a rehabilitation centre affiliated with a Serbian Orthodox monastery. Public opinion was divided between those who defended the priest’s methods and those who condemned them. Three years later, the same priest was accused of beating a patient to death. For a long time, I regarded the affair as a case of media hysteria. It was only after meeting one of the former patients that I understood that the place sheltered people who had lost all hope—and the will to change their lives.

Our Father is about those who have been rejected by society and even by their own families. For them, the monastery appears to offer a refuge founded on faith, discipline and a sense of belonging. Yet a structure created to help can turn into a closed system that justifies repression in the name of transformation. The film explores the fine line between discipline and violence, spiritual guidance and authoritarian control. It reflects on any religious, ideological or political structure that demands absolute obedience and suppresses individual thought, eventually degenerating into autocracy. Sometimes a brutal incident is needed to set change in motion. That is why the film portrays the moment when the illusion of order is shattered and it becomes impossible to ignore the price of silence.