Next to You (2023)

Set five years on from the explosive high school days of director Stevan Filipovic's previous film Next to Me, a state of emergency exists in Serbia and politicians capitalise on public anxiety around Covid-19 to exert ever greater controls on society. Ksenija (Mina Nikolic) is a driven young woman striving to move from tabloid hack to a career journalist in a world hungry for click-bait headlines and showbiz scandals cooked up to satisfy the masses. She is sidetracked by her investigation into a tragic incident that reunites the school friends. Ksenija's personal and professional journey is hampered when her British Nana Vera (Miriam Margolyes) tests positive for Coronavirus and Ksenija must question how far she is willing to stray from her moral norms to fight for Vera and survive in a climate where fear is fostered by police, politicians and corrupt business.