Selma Alispahić
Jovana works behind the counter at a bakery in the small town where she lives with her father. Her somewhat shy peer Marko is supposed to follow in his own father’s footsteps and become a truck driver. But the events of one night change both their lives… Serbian director Stefan Malešević debuts with a formally distinctive triptych whose loose narrative structure challenges the viewer to actively participate in putting together the pieces of the mosaic.
Zeko, a barber and ex-soldier suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, invites his brother Braco and his friend Švabo to Eid festivities. He intends to take advantage of the festive mood and ask his brother, a gambler and alcoholic, to change his ways. Braco doesn’t want to listen and will not take the conversation seriously. Zeko puts a razor under his brother’s neck, forcing him to promise he will change; furious, Braco leaves, telling Zeko he will never see him again, while Švabo suggests that Zeko see a psychiatrist. Alone, without his only friend and his brother, Zeko decides to kill himself – until Muki, a young man selling books door-to-door, stops him.
When Slavko's old friend Djulaga dies, Slavko feels obliged to go to the funeral. But in his hometown of Mostar, in Bosnia & Herzegovina, this simple social obligation has the potential to get him into all kinds of trouble: with his neighbors or even with local political bigwigs. Yet if he does not go, his wife will think he's a coward, the grieving family will never forgive him - and he might have trouble forgiving himself. This is a compelling tale of everyday life in a fractured society, and a world where paranoia, comedy and drama co-exist. It is also an astute psychological portrait of a man who is forced to cross the invisible line that divides two communities. Above all, it is the story of a man who lost everything that defined him, when his country disintegrated.
