A devastating fire at the Pulse nightclub in Kočani, North Macedonia on March 16, 2025, claimed 63 lives and injured hundreds. The tragedy resulted from multiple critical safety failures, including overcrowding that doubled the venue’s 250-person capacity, a single emergency exit, inadequate fire suppression equipment, and highly flammable ceiling materials. Most victims were between 16 and 25 years old.
Filmmaker Milcho Manchevski has created a documentary titled “Good People” examining the disaster through survivor testimonies. Making its world premiere at the Sarajevo Film Festival, the self-funded project features over 20 first-hand accounts from witnesses and victims, reconstructing the tragedy’s harrowing sequence of events without sensationalizing the incident.
The 86-minute film employs a deliberately austere visual approach, featuring survivors seated against black curtains with minimal editing flourishes. Manchester intentionally avoids exploring the broader institutional failures that contributed to the catastrophe, instead allowing the power of survivors’ voices and expressions to convey the tragedy’s emotional weight.
Using strategic pacing through frequent cuts between speakers and meaningful silences, the documentary creates a respectful requiem for those lost. The film progresses chronologically through the nightclub fire, capturing survivors’ memories of confusion, panic, and the fatal stampede toward the sole exit that claimed additional lives through suffocation and trampling.
Originally reported by Variety →
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