The loss of a child haunts a needleworker who doggedly looks for answers to her own history and uncovers a troubling system of deception in Miroslav Terzić’s affecting second film.

Every year, Ana celebrates the birthday of the son she was told was stillborn 18 years earlier. Ana doesn’t believe he’s dead, and her compulsive pursuit of this ‘truth’ adds pressure to an already fraught family dynamic and her own fragile state. Never giving up hope, however, Ana pushes on, digging ever deeper into the dark reality of the past.

Based on true events from Serbia’s recent history, Stitches is a riveting psychological portrait of a woman trying to heal a life that has been shredded by lies and corruption. Concerned more with the impact of this gaslighting on Ana’s wounded mind than on the investigative process, this sensitive, compelling film avoids melodrama as it sews together its mysterious and unsettling pieces.

“An elegant hybrid of true-story exposé and slow-moving arthouse thriller … Stitches takes a familiar idea – a lone crusader taking on a corrupt system in pursuit of the truth — but delivers an unusually thoughtful, psychologically compelling character study.” – Variety