PUN MJESEC

The wealthy criminals can buy their way to freedom, the others however ... The cells are full of inmates who broke the law out of desperation: there's a minor who works as a prostitute, a man who can't afford his electricity bill and a bank robber who has to pay for his child's operation. They shouldn't be here, this is something Hamza has long understood and yet, at the same time, he is aware of his duty as a keeper of the peace. There can be no order in a society in which certain individuals are beyond the law. Initially Hamza manages to find a balance between the competing interests of a corrupt system and his own sense of empathy and yet, sooner or later, he has a choice to make between neglect of duty and becoming part of the system.

Up-and-coming Bosnian director Nermin Hamzagić displays a real eye for detail in this, his feature film debut, in which he tellingly exposes outdated structures without reverting to black-and-white thinking. Whilst behind bars the frustration grows, outside the bribes are distributed. Though captured in an understated, matter-of-fact manner, the result is nevertheless an angry outcry against an age of utter nepotism that, behind a facade of solidarity resulting from a romanticised view of the wartime past, continues to flourish. JP