‘3 Weeks After’ to Premiere in Karlovy Vary Main Competition, Tackling High-School Peer Violence and Bullying

“3 Weeks After,” the third feature by Serbian director Miroslav Terzić, will have its world premiere on July 7 in the Crystal Globe Competition of the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film, described as tense and immersive, follows a group of Serbian high-school students and their teachers on a class trip to Bulgaria that turns into a nightmare after their bus breaks down and they become stranded in an old hotel.

In interviews tied to the Karlovy Vary slate, Terzić said the project was driven by a personal sense of urgency. He described feeling unable to treat bullying and peer violence “from a distance,” saying he is a father of two and that the issue matters to him even though his children are grown.

The film’s premise centers on the consequences of what happens when hostile dynamics in school are not interrupted, and on how violence can be absorbed by the peer group. The Hollywood Reporter reported that Terzić framed the movie as more than a story about peer violence, describing it as an exploration of “violence itself,” including how it is learned, tolerated, and permitted to expand over time.

Terzić said the film’s origin came from multiple true stories rather than a single incident. He told The Hollywood Reporter that the project began after he read an interview with the mother of a deceased boy, noting that she referenced the class field trip and that this detail became one of the starting points for imagining an excursion involving students around ages 15 and 16.

The director also indicated that while writing the script, the creative team could not ignore broader conditions in the world. In the interview, he said “we are surrounded by violence,” a statement The Hollywood Reporter included as context for the film’s approach and tone, even as the story remains rooted in the school-trip setting.

“3 Weeks After” is set to arrive in festival programming as Karlovy Vary continues to stage major premieres in its main competition. For audiences, the film’s subject matter raises questions about how peer groups police behavior and what adults and institutions do when warning signs appear, particularly in environments where students may be isolated from outside help.

For filmmakers and producers, the early festival exposure in Karlovy Vary’s main competition positions the movie for international attention, while also placing responsibility on festival programming to handle sensitive themes involving bullying and potential self-harm with care. Terzić’s comments suggest he intended the work to be difficult to watch but also difficult to forget, according to the interview framing reported by The Hollywood Reporter.