Who we are on the outside is not who we are on the inside.
Surviving Earth
The film enjoys its world premiere at SXSW 2025.
When we first meet Vlad (Slavko Sobin) in 1995 Bristol, England, he is a happy musician who plays a mean harp.
He's much more than that, though, as explored in writer/director Thea Gajić's empathetic feature debut. Vlad has a daughter, Maria (Olive Gray), who is also creatively inclined, expressing herself through her art.
By day, Vlad is a compassionate counselor, freely acknowledging his own past troubles, due to his addictions, when talking to others. By night, Vlad pursues his love of his culture and Balkan music in a band with his friends from work, with ambitions to play before big crowds and really make a go of it as professional musicians.
That's not all he is, of course. Vlad stays in touch with his mother and brother over Skype. His brother needles Vlad for leaving Yugoslavia, and fairly well demands that Vlad send more financial support. Struggling to get by as it is, Vlad only feels more pressure and anxiety from his family.
His daughter Maria and his friends are well aware of his past problems, a point that is brought home when Vlad visits Maria and his ex-wife; the dinner is underscored by fragile tension as the conversation skirts around their deep-seated differences over many years. That also is a hallmark of Vlad's encounters with his bandmates: they are friendly, yet they also treat Vlad as though he's a spinning top who might stop at any moment and descend into his past addictions.
Since the film is based on a true story, it would be all too easy for writer/director Thea Gajić to pound home the dark side of addiction. Instead, she puts the emphasis on Vlad's gregarious personality. Slavko Sobin brings a ready smile to the character, who is inclined to help everyone he meets, even giving a street-dwelling pal money on a regular basis, although Vlad is not truly in a position to do so.
With a dark flash of his eyes and a slight tweak in his facial expression and his body's posture, Sobin can also convincingly -- and scarily -- manifest menace, arising from a long history of forced defensiveness, as though he's always being punched and is trying really hard not to respond in kind.
As his daughter Maria, Olive Gray exudes great relief in the early scenes, in effect saying: 'I'm so glad to have my dad back where he belongs.' That quickly turns to resigned futility when Vlad slips, because she knows -- or suspects strongly, based on past sad experience -- what's about to happen.
Surviving Earth is not, primarily, about addiction, despite its gut-punch effect, nor is it solely about a father and a daughter, though that is the reason for its existence. Rather, the film urges empathy, to understand and share the feelings of another, even if you can never fully get under their skin.