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The recent horrors in Afghanistan have once more exposed the callousness with which too many residents of Europe and the U.S. speak of refugees, whereby displaced human lives become numbers, coldly counted and ranked on a long list of national priorities: not people to be saved, but problems to be solved. If there’s room for them at all, that’s all the reward one dare ask for. To bring up other human needs, of emotional or intellectual fulfilment beyond a roof to sleep under, is to be ungracious in the eyes of the media and the privileged public.

But man cannot survive on survival alone, a point that Serbian director Stefan Arsenijević’s modern refugee fable “As Far As I Can Walk” makes with hushed, heartbroken clarity. A portrait of a Ghanaian refugee couple settled — practically, if not spiritually — in a shabby but serviceable Serbian camp, it begins...

Serbian director Stefan Arsenijević is competing for Karlovy Vary Film Festival’s Crystal Globe with his second feature, “As Far As I Can Walk.” It’s a surprising and exhilarating blend of contemporary refugee story, love triangle and medieval Serbian poem.

Arsenijević’s hometown Belgrade marks an important point on the Balkan migrant route. A few years ago, he could see thousands of new refugees arriving every day. He says, “Having my own experience of war and poverty in the 90s, I could easily identify. I started talking with migrants, hearing their experiences. There was this moving story of epic proportions happening right in front of me. It was just important to find the right angle to tell it.”

As Arsenijević considered compelling ways to put the migrants’ experience on film, he also thought about the epic poem, “Strahinja Banović.” He says, “This poem is a very important part of...

The Serbian director’s new feature, set for release in 2021, is a contemporary adaptation of the Serbian medieval epic poem Banovich Strahinya. Post-production on Stefan Arsenijević’s new feature, As Far as I Can Walk, is under way. The Belgrade-born filmmaker directed his first fiction feature, Love and Other Crimes (premiered at the Berlinale and winner of several awards on the festival circuit) in 2008, followed by his 2010 drama Do Not Forget Me Istanbul. His new effort, penned by the helmer himself in co-operation with Bojan Vuletić and Nicolas Ducray, is a contemporary adaptation of the Serbian medieval epic poem Banovich Strahinya. It follows a man called Strahinya and his wife, Ababuo, both aged 28, who leave Ghana at the beginning of the migrant crisis. They manage to reach Germany but are finally deported back to Belgrade. Serbia may not be Germany, but Strahinya does his best to start a...