Zvizdan

A masterfully-narrated tale of three love affairs between a Serbian and Croatian covering the period 1991-2011. In the process, assisted by eye-catching imagery, the Croatian director manages to provide cinema audiences with an emotional understanding of the madness behind the civil war.

A wonderful summer day in 1991; Jelena, a Serb, and her Croatian boyfriend Ivan swim without a care in the world. They intend it to be the last day they spend in this provincial backwater, for afterwards the plan is to escape and head to Zagreb. It is at this very moment that Serbian soldiers appear, turning erstwhile neighbours into deadly enemies as a long-accumulated sense of injustice is unleashed. The idyllic summer imagery with which Dalibor Matanić's anthology film starts out thus proves deceptive.

The second episode takes place in 2001. A mother and daughter, both Serbian, return to a destroyed village, where a young Croatian helps restore their damaged house. Though barely a word is spoken between him and the young Serbian woman, an impassioned sexual tension develops between the two that needs to find an outlet; that is, were it not for the reproach of the war dead that stands between them.

We then cut closer to the present day; though regardless of the fact that twenty years have passed since the outbreak of the war, a young student is still unable to admit to his parents that he loves a Serb, who's furthermore the mother of his child. Instead he decides to seek refuge in the city. In all three episodes the protagonists are played by Tihana Lazović and Goran Marković, both of whom are blessed with remarkable acting talents. At times playfully in love, at others imbued with hatred, they carry this emotionally complex film with absorbing passion. JT