Serbian film director and professor Stevan Filipović has accused President Aleksandar Vučić of creating an atmosphere in which political violence has become normalized, following a physical attack against him in Belgrade on August 5.
Filipović told Danas that he holds Vučić politically responsible for the attack, although he said he could not personally establish that the Serbian president ordered it.
“I cannot say that Aleksandar Vučić is guilty of the attack, but I can claim that he is responsible because he controls everything that happens in Serbia,” Filipović said, describing Vučić as the “creator of an atmosphere of madness and violence.”
According to Filipović, a group of people whom he described as “paid members of the ruling party” and “criminals serving the regime” attacked him after he photographed them allegedly writing graffiti and putting Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) stickers on a protected building at the corner of Makedonska and Nušićeva streets.
He said the attackers took his phone, knocked him to the ground, kicked him and struck him with a metal chair, causing him to lose consciousness. He said he has since been treated for a concussion, a hematoma on his hip and injuries to his leg, while doctors later determined that he also suffered a fractured nasal bone.
The First Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade has said it ordered authorities to establish the identities of those involved and determine all circumstances surrounding the incident, including by collecting available evidence and surveillance-camera footage.
Filipović rejected Vučić’s public condemnation of the attack, saying the president had questioned whether the director’s account of the perpetrators was a “political fabrication.”
He questioned why his phone was taken if the attack was unrelated to the political activity he had been documenting.
Filipović also said he was able to track the stolen phone after the attack, initially locating it near the Stari Grad police station in Belgrade and later near the National Center for Criminal Forensics. He said the latest location detected through an application was near Uroševac, in an area he described as not predominantly Serbian.
The director said he does not expect the attackers to receive meaningful punishment, citing previous cases in Serbia in which he believes accountability has been lacking.
“I have no right to expect more justice than the victims of the helicopter crash, Savamala, the Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse,” he said, referring to several controversial cases that have generated widespread criticism over accountability.
Filipović said he has given statements to police several times and that authorities also collected his DNA sample. He added that his lawyers have been authorized to follow the case and that he possesses medical documentation of his injuries.
“We have to win the elections to survive”
Filipović also linked the attack to the broader political situation in Serbia, arguing that the next elections will be decisive for the country’s future.
“We have no choice but to win the upcoming elections and drive this government out in order to survive,” he said, accusing the authorities of damaging Serbia’s education and culture sectors and criticizing the state of healthcare and the judiciary.
He also referred to lawsuits he filed after pro-government tabloids allegedly labeled him an “Ustaša,” noting that one case has been resolved in his favor while several others remain pending.
“If they win, I no longer see a way for us to coexist,” Filipović said.
