Virgina

(Srđan Karanović, 1991, Croatia, 102 minutes) New 2K restoration! In the rugged mountains of a 19th-century Balkan village, a fourth girl is born to a poor family “cursed” by superstition to bear no boys. In a culture where family honor outweighs individual desire, the baby girl is raised instead as the “virdžina” Stevan, with the rights and responsibilities of a boy, to become the family’s sole heir. “Better a rooster for a day than a hen for life,” his mother says. Stevan grows into a handsome young man carrying the weight of a destiny chosen for him, but as first love stirs and tragedy unfolds in the village, Stevan is pushed to rebellion against the role he’s been forced to play. Virgina offers a captivating look into the workings of misogyny, gender, and sexuality in late 19th-century Serbia and unfolds as a sensual, haunting tale of identity, duty, and rebellion - a clash between the rigid codes of tradition and the unstoppable pull of the self. Completed by writer-director Srđan Karanović during the outbreak of the Yugoslav Wars in June 1991, the film was effectively lost for years during the conflict. Rediscovered in France by queer film historian and filmmaker Jenni Olson, Virgina lives on in its newly restored form after being unavailable for decades. In Serbian with English subtitles.