"3 Weeks After" is the third feature from Serbian director Miroslav Terzić, an intense arthouse drama about high-school bullying and its aftermath that premiered in competition at the Karlovy Vary film festival. Critic Guy Lodge praises its icy formal control and raw ensemble acting, calling its first half immaculate, though he suggests its "cold-sweat" finale may divide viewers by trading catharsis for a table-turning twist that rings less true than what precedes it.

The story follows Tsotsa (Jovan Ginić), a withdrawn teenager traumatised by the recent suicide of his bullied best friend Andrija, whose tormentors — led by alpha jock Miloš — simply redirect their cruelty onto him. Three weeks after the death, an ill-supervised class trip to Bulgaria descends into chaos when the bus breaks down and the group is stranded overnight at a deserted off-season resort, where teachers lose all authority and Tsotsa is left exposed to escalating, feral violence. Lodge highlights Damjan Radovanović's predatory camerawork and Paolo Segat's cacophonous sound design, and likens the film to Michel Franco's "After Lucia" in its Haneke-style observational realism that blurs the line between candour and exploitation.