Thea Gajić’s debut feature is an assured and intelligent drama that explores a father’s relentless search for contentment beyond his heroin addiction. The film centres on the recovery mantra of taking life one day at a time, offering a refreshingly honest portrayal of addiction that avoids sensationalism.
Slavko Sobin delivers a raw and powerful performance as Vlad, a charismatic recovering heroin addict living in Bristol. Having fled the Yugoslav civil war in the 1990s, Vlad now works as a drug counsellor and spends his evenings playing harmonica in a Balkan band. His daughter Maria (Olive Gray), an artist in London, harbours complicated feelings towards him, torn between fear of disappointment and a craving for his attention.
Vlad’s recovery is threatened not by trauma alone but by boredom and delusion. Dissatisfied with small gigs, he dreams of headlining a concert for hundreds. The film suggests that his greatest struggle is with the mundanity of ordinary life. Sobin’s fierce, energetic performance carries the movie, while Gajić’s script wisely avoids framing addiction as a battle against demons, instead presenting it as a terrible disease. This mature and striking debut marks Gajić as a confident new voice in British cinema.
