One Dying Star

Three turbulent decades of the 20th century are reflected through science-fiction films made in socialist Yugoslavia. Told chronologically through the 60s, 70s, and 80s, the story follows the clash of dreams and reality in a country that no longer exists. Each decade mirrors both the evolution of Yugoslav sci-fi and the rise and fall of the state that created it. When the nation was optimistic, films were bleak; when it collapsed, they sought hope. The last Yugoslav sci-fi—about friendship between an alien and a girl—symbolized a unity the real world was losing.

Prologue
Archive footage and animation evoke early visions of space travel and imagined planets, lit by a red star.

“The endless canopy is both cradle and deathbed to the worlds that keep being born and die…”

1960s – Science and Progress
As the first man enters space, Yugoslavia forges its own socialist path, leading the Non-Aligned Movement. Optimism fills the air, yet sci-fi warns of nuclear peril and the fragility of peace.

1970s – Political Sci-Fi
Amid rapid growth and modernisation, culture thrives but the system hardens. Sci-fi turns political, using allegory and surreal imagery to expose the cracks in utopian ideals.

1980s – Downfall of Utopia
As communism weakens and chaos looms, sci-fi retreats into children’s films. Fantasies of unity mask collective denial. As the world unites, Yugoslavia explodes—like a dying star.

Epilogue
Abandoned sets and unfinished modernist buildings—once symbols of the “future”—reveal a haunting truth: both imagined and real utopias have vanished.

Voyager 2 drifts toward Neptune, passing a fading red star.

“The universe has always been equally magnificent… an eternal existence and duration.”

Told entirely through archival materials, the film contrasts sci-fi imagery with history, reviving forgotten dreams of a society where reality and fiction often became one.