Golden Lion Winner Milcho Manchevski Talks ‘Giving a Voice’ to Pulse Nightclub Survivors With ‘Good People’: ‘Our Job Was to Stay Out of the Way’

It took over three decades for Macedonian filmmaker Milcho Manchevski — whose debut feature “Before the Rain” won the top award in Venice in 1994 and was Oscar nominated — to direct his first documentary. But when he first heard about the nightclub fire that took dozens of lives in North Macedonia in 2025, he could not stop thinking about the victims and those who went through the unfathomable tragedy. The result is the somber “Good People,” having its world premiere as part of the documentary competition at the Sarajevo Film Festival. 

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On March 16, 2025, sparks from indoor fireworks hit the ceiling of the Pulse nightclub in Kočani, North Macedonia. The fire spread with violent speed, killing 63 people and injuring a further 193. Subsequent investigation concluded the club was unlicensed and operated against several safety standards, including insufficient emergency exits and only one available fire extinguisher. The tragedy is the deadliest fire in North Macedonian history, and led to a thorough inspection of similar venues countrywide, with dozens of entertainment venues shut down. 

Speaking with Variety ahead of the premiere, Manchevski says he wanted to make a film that gave the survivors “a voice.” “Their experience and thoughts had to be recorded and shaped into an honest narrative for future generations,” he adds. “We started filming only a month after the tragedy.”

Manchevski decided to at last direct a documentary because he felt there was “a lot of noise in the media but very little of it was [the victims’] unfiltered experiences, emotions and thoughts.” “Very quickly, the tragedy was hijacked for political goals,” he adds, referring to the turmoil that followed the fire — North Macedonia’s then Interior Minister Panče Toškovski said the nightclub only obtained an operating license thanks to “corruption and bribery,” with country-wide anti-corruption protests following the declarations. 

The director notes, however, that this is not strictly his first time working within documentary, having approached the form through his 2010 experimental film “Mothers,” which played Toronto and Berlin. “In general, I have a bit of an issue with the pompous presentation some docs have,” he says, emphasizing how filmmakers often resort to “manipulative techniques, such as swelling music, guiding voice-over, tons of B-roll of gorgeous sunsets…”

With this in mind, Manchevski decided to keep “Good People” “extremely ascetic, austere and minimalist” to “avoid the temptation to manipulate.” All interviews are conducted against a black background, with survivors wearing dark clothes, and no archival footage of the incident has been used. “We are making the viewer confront their words and their faces one-on-one, directly, with as little mediation as possible. Our job was to stay out of the way. Restraint is the word of the day, and it is surprising how much effort it takes to achieve that.”

Asked about the challenges of making the film, the director says he had to work in secret because he alleges he was “blacklisted by the Macedonian Film Agency.” “They blocked all of my films […] documented by Whistleblowing International and Transparency International, among others,” he says.

“That also meant that I had to finance the whole thing myself,” he adds. “All the proceeds from this film will go to the survivors in Kochani.”

Manchevski is thrilled to premiere “Good People” in Sarajevo, a festival that has been part of his career since “Before the Rain.” The director recalls being selected for the first edition of the event in 1995, when the Bosnian War was still raging, and Sarajevo remained under siege. “There was a temporary break in the fighting, and we entered Sarajevo in a UN armored vehicle. It was a somber, almost religious experience. The audience watched a film that references their struggle, the war in Bosnia. For me, it was possibly the most emotional screening of the film after the one in Venice, which brought it a Golden Lion and eventually an Oscar nomination. It feels good coming back more than 30 years later to a prosperous festival and a healing city.” 

As for what’s next, the director says his next film, “Sister Brother Manhole Cover,” is “premiering soon at a major festival.” Manchevski worked on both films at the same time, which he says is “unusual” but was his only alternative after being “blocked from working […] and subjected to political persecution in my native Macedonia.”

“In 2020 and again in 2022, I reported corruption, rigged competitions, and conflict of interest at the Film Agency and, in revenge, they blocked all my previous films as well as the ones in progress,” he says. “Eventually, I won two court cases against the Film Agency, and they had to allow me to work. So, when their dam broke, I made not one, but two films at the same time.”

The filmmaker describes “Sister Brother Manhole Cover” as a “black comedy about the rich and the poor, about searching for love and family on the outskirts of society.” Manchevski confirms the film, a co-production between Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, Italy and the U.K., is now ready. Rome-based Coccinelle Film Sales is handling sales.