Completed by writer/director Srđan Karanović during the outbreak of the Yugoslavian civil war in June 1991, this newly restored period drama has been unavailable for decades. Born as the fourth daughter of a poor Serbian family in the 19th century, Stevan (Marta Keler) is raised as a boy. “Better a rooster for a day, than a hen for life. Everything is made for men,” the mother laments. Families without a male heir were considered cursed at this point in time. As a handsome young boy, Stevan finds a boyfriend and a girlfriend, and a good deal of erotic tension with both. It is eventually revealed that Stevan’s situation is a common thread in the fabric of this androcentric culture.

One of the noted Yugoslav filmmakers and graduates of the Prague Film School FAMU, Karanović based Virgina on a story he had read about in Albania, making it one of the very first queer Serbian films.