Sales company Heretic has acquired world rights to "Until the Day Ends," the fiction feature debut of director Jelena Maksimović, which is set against the backdrop of Serbia's student protests. The film will have its world premiere in Venice's Horizons section in September, marking a notable showcase for a work rooted in recent Serbian political unrest.

The drama follows Lena, an anarchist student in Belgrade's anti-government movement, and Stefan, a working-class youth who ends up among pro-government loyalists; the two fall for each other across the divide and flee to a remote cabin after Stefan fears he caused a policeman's injury. The story is set amid Serbia's largest student protests in decades, which broke out after a railway station canopy collapse in Novi Sad killed 16 people, and draws on Maksimović's own adolescence in Zemun. She co-wrote the screenplay with Olga Dimitrijević and Ivan Salatić, casting mostly non-professional actors, with production led by Serbia's Taurunum Film alongside co-producers from Bulgaria, Slovenia, Germany and Montenegro.