Dane Komljen on His Freewheeling, Utopian ‘Desire Lines’ and ‘Slipping Into a Different Mold’ in the Locarno Main Competition Title

Dane Komljen on His Freewheeling, Utopian ‘Desire Lines’ and ‘Slipping Into a Different Mold’ in the Locarno Main Competition Title

A man dissolves into a shimmering silhouette before passing through a wall into the afterlife in Dane Komljen’s ghostly “Desire Lines,” which held its world premiere Aug. 11 in Locarno’s main International Competition.  A Berlin-based, Serbian filmmaker and visual artist known for his sharp, pensive slow cinema, Komljen was first recognized for his 2010 debut […]

Dane Komljen • Director of Desire Lines

13/08/2025 - The Yugoslavia-born and Berlin-based director breaks down his third feature, which navigates between genres, identities, and both urban and natural spaces

Desire Lines — Dane Komljen [Locarno '25 Review]

Credit where it’s due: Dane Komljen is one uncompromising director. After his debut feature, 2016’s All the Cities of the North, enjoyed widespread acclaim from critics and cinephiles, his next, 2022’s Afterwater, seemed almost designed to jettison the goodwill he’d earnt. Esoteric, unpredictable, and downright bizarre, it divided opinion in a way that his newest [...] The post Desire Lines — Dane Komljen [Locarno ’25 Review] appeared first on I…