Easy Land

A poignant examination of the obstacles and heartbreaks facing recent refugees, Sanja Zivkovic's debut feature Easy Land follows Nina (Nina Kiri) and her mother Jasna (Mirjana Jokovic) as they struggle to build a life for themselves in a new country. Jasna has been traumatized by what she witnessed in Serbia, and the after-effects are exacerbated by the menial jobs she must take to pay the rent despite being a trained architect. Meanwhile, Nina must deal with the regular tensions of high-school life, which are complicated by poverty and her mother's volatile psychological state. Worse, one of Nina's teachers insists she intern at a local theatre company to make up for past transgressions. Plagued by the past, the two women are unable to find common ground and both veer towards the breaking point. (Toronto International Film Festival)