Film Festivals: Our Father (2025) by Goran Stankovic: A Broken Faith in the Wilderness

Summary of Movie — The Broken Faith That Binds Us

A restrained yet unsettling psychological drama, Oče naš follows Dejan, a recovering addict who arrives at a remote monastery seeking redemption but instead becomes entangled in Father Branko’s authoritarian spiritual regime. The film examines the fragile space between salvation and domination, contrasting Dejan’s craving for belonging with Branko’s hunger for control. The story slowly reveals how a religious commune can transform into a crucible of dependency, fear, and misplaced devotion, turning faith into a dangerous power structure.

•Movie Trend: Religious Psychological Realism: Contemporary filmmakers revisit intimate, morally ambiguous faith communities to explore human vulnerability within hierarchical spiritual systems, amplifying inner conflict and emotional fragmentation, deepening unresolved tension awakening violently within.

•Social Trend: Scrutiny of Closed Institutions: Global audiences increasingly interrogate secluded groups and charismatic leaders, reflecting anxieties about manipulation, power imbalance, and the thin line between mentorship and coercion, stirring collective unease rising beneath.

•Movie Director: Goran Stanković’s Humanist Rigour: Stanković blends naturalism with psychological pressure, capturing the collision of personal trauma and authoritarian spirituality with unflinching precision, intensifying interior anguish echoing deeply inside.

•Awards & Nominations: Early Festival Momentum: The film has already secured its first award and continues building critical interest across regional festivals, suggesting quiet but steady acclaim gathering patient strength within.

•Insight for Filmmakers: Stories about faith-based authority resonate when personal wounds intersect with institutional pressure, allowing character-driven tension to evolve naturally across the narrative.

•Insight for Consumers: Viewers drawn to morally complex, human-centered stories will find a film that balances emotional realism with unsettling psychological force.

Why It Is Trending: When Redemption Becomes Obedience

The film is gaining traction due to its provocative exploration of spiritual mentorship that morphs into psychological domination. Its TIFF premiere strengthened its position as a standout Balkan drama, while early reviews praise its raw emotional honesty and exceptional lead performances. The blend of a universal theme—vulnerability meeting authority—with culturally specific detail makes the film appealing to international audiences seeking character-driven realism.

•Return of Institutional Critique: Audiences gravitate toward films exposing the inner workings of closed systems and the emotional cost of trusting the wrong authority, fueling collective introspection growing steadily inside.

•Cross-Border Festival Appeal: Global festivals embrace intimate Eastern European dramas for their raw authenticity, pushing Oče naš into visibility across diverse markets, expanding multicultural resonance deepening steadily around.

•Complex Portrait of Recovery: Addiction narratives that avoid sensationalism and focus on psychological dependency offer viewers a fresh, grounded perspective, nurturing empathetic understanding growing quietly within.

•Insight for Filmmakers: Exploring vulnerability within rigid structures can create intense dramatic stakes without relying on genre tropes.

•Insight for Consumers: The film offers an emotionally honest depiction of recovery, belonging, and dangerous devotion, rewarding viewers who appreciate slow-burn psychological tension.

Why to Watch This Movie — A Slow Descent Into Belief

This film stands out for its intimate emotional stakes and its examination of the moral struggle between surrendering to faith and surrendering to control. Viewers will find a compelling tension between two men who desperately need each other yet slowly destroy what they idealize.

•Powerful Character Study: Dejan’s transformation from vulnerable outsider to fervent disciple creates an emotionally gripping arc that places viewers inside his shifting loyalties, shaping spiraling turmoil deepening quietly within.

•Atmospheric Monastic Setting: The remote commune becomes a character of its own, creating a claustrophobic spiritual environment where isolation amplifies fear, conjuring suffocating pressure tightening steadily around.

•Commanding Central Performances: Vucic Perović and Boris Isaković deliver layered portrayals that grant the film its emotional weight, grounding the story in authenticity despite its unsettling momentum, forging immersive tension echoing endlessly within.

•Insight for Filmmakers: Minimalist settings and tight character focus can produce high emotional stakes with modest resources.

•Insight for Consumers: Ideal for viewers who enjoy psychologically dense dramas where tension grows from silence, ritual, and human fragility.

Where to watch (industry professionals): https://pro.festivalscope.com/film/our-father-5

Link IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35375401/

Link Review: https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/483595/

About movie: https://splitscreen.hr/films/fiction/our-father/

What Trend Is Followed — Faith as Psychological Battlefield

The film aligns with a rising cinematic movement that explores religious communities as landscapes of emotional conflict rather than spiritual purity. Instead of portraying faith as salvation, these narratives examine faith as negotiation—between guilt, longing, dependence, and authority.

•Redemption Through Submission: Characters seeking healing are drawn toward rigid instructors who promise order but demand obedience, generating emotional conflict swelling painfully within.

•Institutional Isolation: Closed communities shape identity by limiting outside influence, heightening psychological pressure as belonging becomes both comfort and cage, intensifying desperate yearning circling internally around.

•Charismatic Authority Figures: Stories highlight leaders whose moral certainty conceals insecurity, ambition, or unresolved violence, revealing how faith can mutate into control, illuminating hidden fractures widening slowly beneath.

•Insight for Filmmakers: Slow-burn moral tension is increasingly valued over overt religious critique; depth of character is more powerful than doctrine.

•Insight for Consumers: The film echoes real-world anxieties about trust, authority, and the price of surrendering control.

Movie Plot — The Dangerous Mercy of Father Branko

The narrative follows Dejan, an addict seeking redemption in a monastery commune where Father Branko’s spiritual discipline becomes a gateway to psychological domination. As Dejan becomes Branko’s most loyal follower, he adopts the priest’s harsh methods and is gradually consumed by the need to please his mentor. The film charts their escalating dynamic against a backdrop of isolation, ritual, and emotional hunger.

•Dejan’s Arrival: A vulnerable newcomer enters the commune hoping for healing, but quickly becomes shaped by Branko’s harsh discipline, stirring conflicted faith deepening sorrowfully inside.

•Branko’s Methods: The priest’s strict “salvation through suffering” philosophy grows increasingly extreme, blurring compassion and cruelty, provoking moral tension radiating sharply outward.

•Growing Dependency: Dejan’s need for belonging evolves into dependency, turning mentorship into emotional captivity, binding uncertain loyalties tightening silently around.

•Breaking Point: As Branko’s authority spirals toward violence, Dejan confronts the cost of devotion and the damage already forged within him, forcing devastating clarity breaking inwardly apart.

•Insight for Filmmakers: Character-driven psychological escalation offers powerful storytelling without the need for high-budget spectacle.

•Insight for Consumers: A compelling, intimate drama that probes the cost of misplaced faith and emotional hunger.

Director’s Vision — Goran Stanković’s Intimate Descent

Stanković approaches Oče naš with a commitment to emotional realism, focusing on the psychological gradients between devotion, fear, and longing for structure. His vision is grounded in the belief that redemption is rarely pure—and often intertwined with power dynamics that thrive in places where people come to heal. The film’s restrained pacing, unembellished environments, and intense character focus reflect a director interested not in spectacle but in internal collapse.

•Focus on Human Fragility: Stanković magnifies the moments where broken individuals seek connection, exposing how easily spiritual guidance becomes emotional dependency, shaping wounded longing pressing inwardly within.

•Authority in Close-Up: By limiting the world to the commune, he intensifies the gravitational pull of Father Branko, making control feel omnipresent and inescapable, heightening oppressive certainty closing quietly around.

•Moral Ambiguity as Engine: The director refuses clear heroes or villains, allowing characters to exist in contradictions shaped by trauma and desire, fostering empathetic tension swelling subtly beneath.

•Insight for Filmmakers: A narrowly framed world can amplify emotional intensity when characters carry the thematic weight.

•Insight for Consumers: The film rewards viewers who appreciate psychologically driven direction rather than traditional narrative escalation.

Themes — Faith, Power, and Emotional Surrender

The film explores how spiritual structure can become a refuge or a cage depending on the vulnerability of those who enter it. Through Dejan and Father Branko, Oče naš dismantles the romanticized notion of redemption and instead presents faith as a space of negotiation—between desperation and authority, forgiveness and control, need and manipulation.

•Salvation as Submission: The film interrogates how the desire for healing can lead individuals to surrender autonomy, illuminating painful longing tightening steadily inward.

•Authority and Abuse: Branko’s rigid leadership demonstrates how spiritual roles can mask personal wounds and dangerous impulses, revealing corrupted conviction spreading darkly within.

•Isolation and Identity: The commune becomes a world where identity is stripped down and rebuilt according to the leader’s rules, exposing fragile selfhood weakening slowly under.

•Cycles of Trauma: Dejan’s journey shows how past wounds shape susceptibility to new forms of control, creating spirals that mimic addiction in emotional form, echoing unresolved ache forming painfully again.

•Insight for Filmmakers: Themes of power, belief, and control resonate strongly when grounded in authenticity rather than sensationalism.

•Insight for Consumers: This is a character-driven exploration of how trauma shapes choices, relationships, and susceptibility to authority.

Key Success Factors — Authenticity, Intensity, and Human Truth

A single-sentence summary:The film succeeds through its grounded performances, immersive atmosphere, and emotionally rigorous storytelling.

•Authentic Performances: The cast delivers raw, grounded portrayals that elevate every conflict, lending the story credibility and emotional sharpness, stirring intimate vulnerability rising unexpectedly within.

•Atmospheric Minimalism: The remote commune and stark visual style create a pressure-cooker environment where silence and isolation fuel tension, crafting foreboding stillness tightening rhythmically around.

•Psychological Depth: The narrative avoids sentimental shortcuts, instead diving into the contradictions of faith and control with nuance and restraint, nurturing layered reflection deepening slowly inside.

•Insight for Filmmakers: Emotional precision can elevate minimalist settings into powerful dramatic engines.

•Insight for Consumers: Audiences looking for depth, honesty, and intensity will find the film’s realism deeply compelling.

Awards & Nominations — A Strong Start for a Festival-Driven Drama

The film has already earned 1 early festival win, establishing momentum during its pre-release circuit. Critics highlight the performances and the emotional force of the narrative as standout elements. While major award runs are yet to unfold, early regional recognition suggests a promising trajectory for festival acclaim, especially in acting and screenplay categories.

Insight for Filmmakers: Early festival recognition can help intimate dramas gain visibility in competitive spaces.Insight for Consumers: Awards here indicate emotional richness and strong performances rather than mainstream spectacle.

Critics Reception — A Stark and Unsettling Portrait

Critics praise Oče naš for its emotional precision, carefully controlled tension, and powerful central performances. The film’s naturalistic style and immersive psychological lens resonate strongly with reviewers who highlight its moral complexity and raw performances.

•Variety (Online Magazine): Commends the film’s subtle psychological construction, noting its ability to evoke dread without resorting to genre tropes, reflecting measured admiration growing thoughtfully within.

•Screen Daily (Film Site): Highlights the strength of the performances and the intimate use of space to enhance emotional pressure, emphasizing restrained craftsmanship unfolding quietly beneath.

•Cineuropa (European Cinema Outlet): Praises the film’s authentic Balkan sensibility and its portrayal of fractured faith communities, acknowledging cultural specificity grounding thematic weight throughout.

•Insight for Filmmakers: Critics respond to authenticity, emotional rigor, and thematic bravery in contained settings.

•Insight for Consumers: Positive reviews indicate a film that resonates through realism rather than dramatic excess.

Reviews — Audience Reflections on Devotion and Control

Early audience responses reflect strong appreciation for the film’s emotional realism and character depth. Viewers respond particularly to the performances and the delicate tension between redemption and manipulation.

•Letterboxd (Film Community): Users praise the atmospheric tension and emotional honesty of Dejan’s arc, celebrating its grounded dramatic pull shaping intimate resonance within.

•Festival-Goers (TIFF Responses): Audience members highlight the film’s moral ambiguity and unsettling mentorship dynamic as key strengths, forming thoughtful engagement deepening steadily around.

•Regional Press (Balkan Outlets): Reviewers emphasize the cultural authenticity and worn-in realism of the world, applauding its truthful portrayal of communal life and spiritual struggle, nurturing cultural recognition echoing profoundly within.

•Insight for Filmmakers: Emotional ambiguity and character-driven conflict can foster strong audience dialogue.

•Insight for Consumers: Viewers seeking thoughtful, intense psychological drama will connect most deeply with the film.

Release Dates — Where and When It Arrives

• Theatrical Release: September 9, 2025 (Canada, TIFF Premiere)

• International Festival Circuit: Autumn 2025 across Europe (Serbia, North Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina selections)

• Streaming Release: Expected early 2026 (platform TBD), following standard festival-to-streamer acquisition patterns for Balkan prestige cinema.

What Movie Trend the Film Is Following — The Rise of Spiritual-Psychological Dramas

Oče naš aligns with the growing trend of intimate, psychologically focused dramas set inside closed communities—films that use isolation and authority structures to expose human vulnerability. Recent cinema increasingly gravitates toward small-scale, emotionally intense narratives where faith, power, and trauma intersect, echoing works such as Saint Maud, The Novice, and The Club.

Insight for Filmmakers: Audiences respond strongly to compact, high-intensity environments where character dynamics carry the full dramatic weight.Insight for Consumers: This trend offers emotionally immersive stories that feel both personal and universal.

What Big Social Trend It Is Following — Interrogating Abuse of Authority in Institutions

The film reflects society’s increasing scrutiny of institutions once perceived as unquestionable—religious communities, spiritual communes, therapeutic retreats, and leadership structures built on charisma. As public trust erodes, stories exploring moral fragility within these systems resonate deeply. Oče naš channels this cultural moment by depicting how spiritual authority can blur into coercion when broken individuals seek belonging.

Insight for Filmmakers: Highlighting institutional vulnerability and personal fragility taps into a global conversation about power and accountability.Insight for Consumers: Viewers drawn to stories about corruption, misplaced trust, and emotional complexity will find the film compelling.

What Consumer Trend It Is Following — Interest in Raw, Emotionally Realistic Character Studies

Modern audiences increasingly gravitate toward emotionally honest dramas centered on flawed protagonists seeking redemption or identity. This aligns with the popularity of psychologically intimate films that challenge viewers to empathize with morally ambiguous characters. Oče naš mirrors this pull by offering a raw, unfiltered portrayal of dependency, trauma, and the search for purpose.

Insight for Filmmakers: Emotion-first storytelling continues to drive engagement, especially when paired with cultural specificity.Insight for Consumers: The film appeals to those who value realism and depth over traditional thriller or crime formulas.

Final Verdict — A Haunting Study of Devotion and Desperation

Oče naš stands as a gripping psychological drama anchored in towering performances and a deeply atmospheric setting. Rather than offering a simple story of redemption, it explores the subtle ways personal vulnerability can transform spiritual guidance into emotional captivity. The film is compelling, intimate, and thematically rich—an essential watch for fans of character-driven European cinema.

Insight for Filmmakers: Minimalist environments with emotionally complex characters can yield powerful, award-ready storytelling.Insight for Consumers: Expect a slow-burning, intense, and emotionally layered narrative that lingers long after it ends.

Key Trend Highlighted — The Rise of Intimate Spiritual-Psychological Character Dramas

Modern cinema is increasingly gravitating toward small-scale, emotionally intense stories set within religious, spiritual, or correctional institutions. These narratives explore the fragile relationship between authority and vulnerability, often centering on protagonists who seek belonging within rigid systems that ultimately reshape or destroy them. Oče naš embodies this trend through its focus on a remote monastery where mentorship transforms into domination, mirroring global anxieties around institutional trust, spiritual leadership, and the human need for guidance.

Insights for Filmmakers:Audiences are responding to films with high emotional density and minimalistic settings—stories that prioritize inner conflict over external spectacle. By grounding narratives in real psychological tension and placing characters in closed, pressure-cooker environments, filmmakers can create deeply immersive, award-ready work that resonates across cultures.

Insights for Consumers:Viewers increasingly seek stories that reflect inner turmoil, spiritual questioning, and the search for identity within flawed systems. This trend speaks to consumers looking for authenticity, emotional honesty, and films that leave them thinking long after the credits roll.

Key Insight — Vulnerability Becomes Power’s Greatest Gateway

The film reveals how personal fragility—addiction, guilt, longing, loneliness—can open the door to emotional dependence on a charismatic authority figure. Oče naš demonstrates that institutions do not always corrupt through force; sometimes they corrode through comfort, structure, and the promise of redemption. The narrative highlights how individuals seeking salvation may unknowingly surrender autonomy, making vulnerability the very mechanism by which control deepens.

Insights for Filmmakers:Stories exploring the emotional mechanics of influence—how mentorship shifts into manipulation—tap into universally relatable fears. Filmmakers can leverage this insight to craft more layered antagonists, morally ambiguous leaders, and protagonists whose emotional needs shape the plot as strongly as any external threat.

Insights for Consumers:This insight helps viewers recognize how power operates subtly in real-world relationships—through trust, admiration, or desperation. It also makes Oče naš especially compelling for audiences interested in psychology, emotional resilience, and character-driven narratives that challenge assumptions about faith, loyalty, and self-worth.

Similar Movies — Films Exploring Faith, Power & Fragile Redemption

A curated selection of tonal and thematic companions, with year and director:

• The Club (2015) by Pablo Larraín — A chilling portrait of spiritual authority and moral decay within an isolated religious community.

• Saint Maud (2019) by Rose Glass — A psychological descent into religious obsession, intimacy, and authority.

• Godless (2016) by Ralitza Petrova — A stark Balkan drama exploring corruption, control, and fractured identity.

• The Novice (2021) by Lauren Hadaway — An intense study of obsession, mentorship, and identity breakdown in an isolated environment.

• Luzzu (2021) by Alex Camilleri — While not religious, it mirrors the emotional realism and cultural specificity of Oče naš.

Insight for Filmmakers: These films demonstrate the enduring appeal of intimate, character-driven narratives rooted in institutional tension.Insight for Consumers: Viewers drawn to Oče naš will find similarly potent emotional landscapes in these titles.

Final Insight on Market Positioning — For Filmmakers & Consumers

For Filmmakers:Oče naš positions itself at the intersection of arthouse authenticity and psychological intensity. Its festival-friendly minimalism, thematic ambition, and cultural specificity make it a strong contender for international acclaim and targeted streaming acquisition.

For Consumers:The film stands as a compelling choice for viewers seeking introspective, emotionally charged dramas that explore the fragile boundaries between guidance and control, faith and fear, redemption and surrender.