I was told to save the world
Vesna (21) lives in an animal shelter in rural Serbia with her grandma Vesna (65) where they take care of 300 rescued animals. Disabled dogs, blind cats, Gypsy horses, a donkey saved from a slaughterhouse, a chinchilla spared from becoming a fur. They all live in this matriarchal kingdom. Vesna is kind, obedient and full of dreams, she feels the need to save animals, grandma and the world so she juggles a job in a car factory and endless hard work at the shelter. Grandma rules, provokes, swears, and adopts almost everyone. She is terminally ill but doesn’t really have the time to die. She treats doctors like bad fortune-tellers. Like the dogs, Vesna was left behind by her teenage mother and adopted by grandma. They cannot live without each other, though it often seems they cannot live with each other either. Their house attracts everyone society forgot, homeless men, bitter mothers, absent fathers who gather over gossip and rakija. For every animal that leaves, two more arrive. As the shelter grows, so does the pressure. Something has to break. Vesna will either leave the shelter, or leave the idea of saving the world.