Leaving December 1

Directed by Želimir Žilnik | 84 mins | 1995
Žilnik, one of the great, insubordinate talents to emerge from the Yugoslavian “Black Wave” of the 1960s and ’70s, who’d seen his work politically suppressed, took advantage of new permissiveness to produce this raunchy, raucous, and disarmingly tender blast from Belgrade’s queer underground about two trans sex workers, Merlin and Sanela, who view turning tricks as an act of political protest against the macho militarism of Slobodan Milošević’s communist regime. A sort-of screwball pacifist protest picture, promoting the power of sexual healing against the trauma and agony of the Balkans War, which was raging during the film’s production.