ASHES & STRAWBERRIES

Director Gabriella Nikolić, aged 55, is returning to her hometown of Belgrade after she and her family emigrated to Toronto in 1991 following the fall of former Yugoslavia. Her return is sparked by a chance discovery made by her parents, who found a wooden box filled with photographs hidden beneath the tiles in their apartment. The box contains a secret that sheds light on the tragic loss and painful destiny of Gabriella's grandmother, who was the only survivor of the Holocaust from a large Sephardic family.

Gabriella finds the box a source of her catharsis as she discovers why her grandmother hid it and kept silent about the war and pre-war times. This discovery inspired Gabriella to become a family archaeologist, searching for missing pieces and shedding light on the hidden past through intimate conversations with her aunt Sonia and father Dragan, who were born just before the war. The old photos are arranged, filled with laughter and happiness from family vacations, and intertwined with pre-war archive videos that fill the gaps in memory and create a transformed image of life. The "silent antagonist" is a building that was constructed for the International Fair in 1937, around the same time as the director's father and aunt were born. However, during the German occupation in 1941, the fairground in Belgrade was transformed into a concentration camp where Jews, Serbs, and Roma were imprisoned. Unfortunately, more than 16,000 people, including fifty-two members of Gabriella's family, disappeared without a trace.

Gabriella is going through her findings from the present and the past. Her discoveries inspire her to investigate different archives and consider other possible outcomes for her family members. Home videos from the pre-World War II era will transform the stories of their lives into something that is taking place in the present. Gabriella feels like she is on a pilgrimage while telling the story of relatives who perished during the Holocaust.