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In order to pay for a life-saving operation for his son, a quite normal man signs a pact with the devil and becomes a solitary murderer.

The deed soon starts hounding Mladen: keeping the secret from his wife forces him into a kind of emotional poker, and his conscience also doesn't cooperate very long in this betrayal of his own moral standards. A "Balkan version of 'Crime and Punishment'", as director Srdan Golubović writes, set against the backdrop of a transition process gone awry: "a modern 'film noir' about post-Milošević Serbia, where there is no more war, just a moral and existential desert." Golubović vividly dissects the personality transformations from the perspective of a confession, always showing great respect for his protagonists. With its distinctive language of images, which finds a style of its own between close-ups and the representation of urban architecture, the film reveals an artistic approach to the theme that points beyond empty metaphors at the personal quality of the story – a story whose pull can't be refused.

Bernd Buder

Production: Film House Bas Celik, Belgrad; Mediopolis GmbH, Leipzig; UJ Budapest Filmstudio, Budapest

Screenplay: Srdan Kogiević, Melina Potakogiević, based on a play by Nenad Teofilović

Cinematographer: Aleksandar Ilić

Cast: Nebojša Glogovac, Anica Dobra, Miki Manojlović, Nataša Ninković

Format: 35mm, Color

Running time: 106 minutes

Language: Serbian

Funded by:

  • Logo Minister of State for Culture and the Media
  • Logo des Programms NeuStart Kultur