In grainy VHS footage from a childhood that has since become youth, 'Heavens' reflects in a dark and poetic form on the fragile relationship between young Sashka and her parents. The historical gulf between former Yugoslavia and today's Belgrade is also a generational rift. And those who were children during and after the war that constantly rumbles outside the frames of the image, have now themselves become adults with a need to define and form their own identity and future. Sashka is one of them. Past and present (and possibly future) cross paths in the young directing duo Jelena Maksimovic & Ivan Salatic's thoughtful collage of scenes, where a punk concert and a first ride on roller skates take on a whole new meaning. Behind the alienation and the nagging doubt, we more than sense a stubbornly determined young woman, who has learned from the history that she herself is helping to shape.
(CPH:DOX)
