WHITE BUTTON

“Spit and sing, my Yugoslavia.” Bijelo Dugme (White Button) was the biggest rock band in 70s and 80s Yugoslavia. Goran Bregovic, now a world-famous film composer, and his fellow musicians sparked euphoria from Sarajevo to Moscow, scandalised the media with their performances and their album covers and blended Western influences with traditional elements. Yet beyond the sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, their career was marked from the outset by the political upheavals taking place in their socialist country: a new constitution, Tito’s death and the breaking up of Yugoslavia underscored the 15-year history of the band._Igor Stoimenov reveals the complex connections between rock’n’roll and contemporary history in a film about an era that was as eventful musically as it was politically.