Ljubiša Samardžić

Adaptation of the highly popular children's novel by Branko Copic, who in this book resembles his school and college days in Bihac, Bosnia, in the years before WWII.

In January 1943 the German army, afraid of an Allied invasion of the Balkans, launched a great offensive against Yugoslav Partisans in Western Bosnia. The only way out for Partisan forces and thousands of refugees was the bridge on the river Neretva.

After a train breaks down and the passengers are forced to spend a day at a remote country tavern, the mix of seasonal farm workers, transients, musicians, and would-be party kingpins heads toward some explosive moments. A truckload of chickens arrive to be killed and cooked for the unruly group of passengers, and when a few boorish men harass a female singer, their actions lead to unexpected violence.

When Dane returns from the army, Vera awaits him at the station, ready to live together with him. Yet beneath the veil of enthusiasm lies anxiety for their future. The couple sets off for the mountain village where Vera's parents live, but find life in the harsh alpine conditions too difficult. They decide to move down into the valley, where they meet a discontented couple whose marriage has been marred by an affair. Vera and Dane also encounter difficulties in their relationship, but the tragic example of the other couple helps them realize that their home lies in the place of their birth - beneath the free skies in the mountains.

Sarajevo 1944. The German armies desperately need fuel in the retreat. Walter, the enigmatic and charismatic leader of the resistance movement, can endanger their supplies. The Germans are taking a cunning plan to remove that obstacle.

In the first days after the Second World War, as collaborators are being taken care of, a former partisan finds out that war never truly ends — not even in time of peace.

The first Yugoslav Partisan air force unit. Loosely based on historical facts.

The lives of many people in one Serbian town are changed after Tito's breakup with Stalin.

The headquarters of the Marshal Tito's Liberation Army are surrounded by Axis forces. The Partisans have no choice but to fight their way out of the encirclement and face the enemy on the plains of Sutjeska.

Fascinated by his friend's success abroad, an out-of-work barber Šurda tries his luck in Germany. Incapable to accept any job that would suit him, he returns to his homeland in disappointment. Based on a popular TV serial "Hot Wind" ("Vruć vetar").

A lyrical fourfold perspective on WWII through the eyes of a young partisan couple, a town photographer and a German officer.

The adventures of a skillful Belgrade policeman who proves to be equally successful as a caring father.

Trajković family are bridge builders. Being forced to move every once in a while, the bridges are everything but pleasant thing for 17 year old Budimir, who is unable to make any permanent love relationship. In their last attempt to settle down in capital, a boy will experience love in its full meaning.

The story begins in 1941 and shows one of the people who which were actually, very brave and proudly fought against the Ustasha, Germans and other butchers, not related to that ideology was tied. The film is about Dr. Mladen Stojanovic legend of Kozara and Krajina, great man, humanist, friend, and finally the commander one of a the proud partisan detachment, which is that area brought for a moment bring much desired freedom.

A love story between a Serbian girl and young Albanian set against the background of current Balkanic conflict.

Robert is a SF writer, who realizes that he can make his thoughts material. Because of that, a group of aliens arrives to Earth. Their leader is Andra, who shows affection for Robert, which does not please his girlfriend, Biba. A monster, Mumu, has arrived together with the visitors from space.

While heading to Spain to spend their honeymoon there, Siniša and Svetlana find themselves at Montenegrin coast due to mistake made by travel agency. They get back disappointed to Belgrade, where new problems expect them: Svetlana applied for an apartment, but divorced mothers with children are those who have advantage. Svetlana and Siniša decide to divorce for a part-time period so they could trick the housing board and get an apartment.

The Germans held the strategically important airport, where planes were taking off to bombard partisans positions. Headquarters of one a partisan unit sent a few commandos to blow up airplanes and airport in the air.

In 1960s Belgrade, a young and much-loved singer Aleksandar Kiš is murdered in his flat. His body is discovered by Ana, his model lover. For Inspector Marko and his team, the case seems unsolvable. The subsequent investigation pieces together the victim’s past and reveals the price of his success: ambition, cynicism and many enemies.

A journalist investigates the smuggling of gypsy children on the black market and tries to save a young boy.

A comedy of everyday life problems of a "temporary" teacher who leads a very "temporary" life. For ten years, he temporarily lives with his married sister in a cramped, one-room apartment in which, his brother's-in-law sister also temporarily lives. He has a diploma, but not a steady job. He's a school teacher for a definite period of time with a "temporary" status. At the mean time, a boy who lives alone with his mother goes to the same school. He wants to have a father by his own choice, not his mother's. It seems that the teacher suits most of the boy's idea of a father. And the boy gains what he always wants.

A love story of a couple coming from different social backgrounds set in the context of Yugoslavian reality, its social and state decline. Their quest for the meaning of life proves to be nothing but failure.

In the whirlpool of WW2, two peaceful towns that have already tasted peace are once again attacked by the Germans. Casualties are high, but the dream of a boy and a girl about their liberated towns cannot be destroyed.

It is 1941 and the German occupying forces are taking over Yugoslavia, making a train ride to Kraljevo a dangerous game for a secret communist agent carrying important documents. Both the Germans and the police are looking for him on the train, and his safe arrival in Kraljevo seems like an impossibility. His determination to get the papers to the right people keeps him going, even through a gun battle after the train arrives - challenging him to find a way to complete his mission.

Tragicomic story about a former boxing champion, unbeaten in the ring, but beaten by alcohol.

Sevdalinka is a traditional genre of folk music from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sevdalinka is an integral part of the Bosniak culture, but is also spread across the ex-Yugoslavia region, including Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. The actual composers of many Sevdalinka songs are largely unknown because these are traditional folk songs. This documentary explores the wonderful culture of Sevdalinka.

In 1985, four middle-aged Yugoslav emigres return to Belgrade for the funeral of Mariana, their beautiful compatriot. They called her Esther, for Esther Williams, she was the coxswain for their four-man rowing team, and they each loved her. They'd last seen her in 1953, when they rowed her across the Adriatic, pregnant, to join her exiled father in Italy. In flashbacks we learn the story of their youthful baptism into sex, smoking, rock and roll (Hey Ba-ba-re-bop), Hollywood and Swedish films, blue jeans on the black market, and their rivalry with Ristic, the Communist Party youth leader for whom they had instant antipathy.

Playboy Red Mitchell suffers from chromosome malformation X+YY, a dangerous deformity of the libido. At night, driven by inner turmoil, he roams the streets of the city and murders women. Preferably young, pretty girls who become his victims after he has seen them naked in his imagination with his X-ray vision and then undresses them in real life to kill them. But he soon leaves traces behind, and a cunning detective who suspects his chromosomal drive is on Mitchell's trail...

In Autumn of 1943 American plane carrying Soviet colonel is shot down near Nazi-occupied Belgrade. Germans capture the colonel and begin interrogations, because he knows everything about forecoming Allied summit in Tehran. Group of Yugoslav Partizans is sent to Belgrade in order to rescue the colonel before he starts talking.

The action takes place in 1943 and today, and a Partisan school in Srem is in the center of action. A young journalist gets appointed to shoot a film report about the participants in the Liberation War from this area. In Srem village she meets common, simple people. She discovers that a free territory and a Partisan school was there. She also finds out that everybody acted as one. Deply going through all of those events, young reporter grows mature, identifying herself with the revolution participants.

Traveling salesman in a small town before WW2 makes a solemn promise to kill himself. Later he finds that the local people took him very seriously.

Obsessed by the dreams of a comfortable life, son of a coal miner comes back to his native country with plans to sell his father's house in order to travel to the African diamond mine in Katanga. Re-visiting of his hometown brings back his childhood trauma, and the nightmare of the old and new love, the events in and around the mine, all put his obsession with Katanga on test.

A young, ambitious man employs every means necessary in order to climb to the top of the social ladder. But the whirlpool of compromises and corruption eventually threatens to render his life meaningless.

The lives of a Serb family are torn apart by the pressures of the not-too-distant war with the Croats. The film addresses the fundamental question "Can love survive between political enemies?"

The story of a young man who, in 1991. receives order to report to a military drill, and finds himself on Vukovar front, where he spends five months. Returning from there, he discovers changes within himself, but within his home town also. Totally lost, he finds no way to make contact with the environment, and suddenly experiences love with the girl who survived all horrors of that war...

A story about Andjela and her three lovers, inspired by Chekhov’s prose.

In Vojvodina during the war, a partisan commander Zarki fell into the hands of the local Germans. They bound him in chains and take him from one village to another, torturing him in public so he could tell the names from his movement. Bewildered by his resisting power, the Germans tend to break him down and destroy the pride which is his answer to their torture. Frenzied of powerlessness, they ultimately choose the most horrifying death - they buried him alive in the sand that will cover the last trait of him, but he died victorious: He died for his thing.

Two best friends, former Partisans, must face new challenges after the war.

Men, women, and war. Jelena Panic is a young woman in Belgrade in the early 1990s, during Serbia's war with Croatia; she's making a book of her grandmother's diaries from the end of World War II. She takes up with Bogdan, a young soldier recovering from war wounds. He helps her with her grandmother's story, a tragic triangle involving her effete and well-educated husband and an uneducated major, a Chekist who has, perhaps, the power to save a political prisoner who is the grandmother's friend. As Jelena wonders which man was her grandfather (the Chekist or the husband), Bogdan recovers from his wounds and must decide whether to return to the front. Jelena pleads; duty calls.

Tugomir, a student, wants to write a dissertation on Love, but fails to complete it before being obligatory drafted in the army. There, he succumbs to paranoia that his girlfriend is cheating on him. He decides to cheat on her too.

Perpetual wandering of a man who searches for his own identity, never reaching the final destination.

The story of a few untrained construction workers from poor underdeveloped parts of the country, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina or Macedonia, who carry out seasonal work in the highly-developed republic of Slovenia. Far from home, problems arise for the men - with their families, alcohol, the local population's derision and the "real Slovenian workers".

The Zivkovic family lives on a hilly village, on cleared part of land. Having many relatives, their lives are interlaced, and jobs distributed. Their biggest problem is a family that lives on the village edge and whose members steal, and Uros the Stupid, single and infantile Markovic family member. Contrary to the world of elders, Urosh and children lead their life of some kind. Suddenly, postman brings the telegram saying that some forgotten cousin from America has died and left two million dollars of inheritance. Unrest enters life of peasants. Everyone has some idea on how to invest the money, feeling at the same time that they don't need it. All of their actions will end differently from what they expected.

The story is set in a small Dalmatian town. Soon after the death of a local nobleman, a girl who worked as a servant in his house, gets pregnant. Even though the father's identity remains unknown, the whole neighborhood saw a naked man jumping down from her window on that same night when the nobleman died. Local teacher who lives in that house, falls in love with the girl who decides to tell him the truth about the "naked man".

The story of three boys who, fascinated with seventh art magic, decide to escape from their remote village straight to Hollywood. In the same time, a local policeman frantically organizes a reception for the president of the state. His "strictly controlled" citizens, under the influence of events in Cuba, in 1962. start dividing in two parties, resolved to succeed where Khruschev and J.F.K. have failed.

A divorcee and her three teenage daughters go on their summer holidays at sea. There they encounter some romantic (mis)adventures.

Young farmer Mikajlo while on youth labour action falls in love with a student Nada and infatuated with her, he leaves the peasant brigade and Malena, a girl who as if she were overabundant, followed him to work the labour action. Mikajlo's courtship of Nada provokes laughter and ridicule, so ambitious 'Don Juan' returns to his brigade and the girl.

The new misadventures of single mother Svetlana, her 12 year old son and (still) part-time worker Siniša. Siniša's plans to marry Svetlana are ruined when her ex-husband comes back from Germany, persuading her to start their new life together.

Goose Feather (Serbian: Jesen Stiže, Dunjo Moja) was Serbia submission to the 77th Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee. Vaguely based on a song By Djordje Balasevic called "Prica o Vasi Ladackom" (the story of Vasa Ladacki). The story is about a very poor boy that wanted abundance and wealth because he basically didn't own anything. He was in love with an equally poor girl that his father wouldn't accept. He moves to another village and starts drinking...

A young barber comes to the small village to open a barbershop. He gradually gets to know with the locals and farmers, makes friends with them and even tries to organize the plans, activities and schedules of the village. He also runs a parallel, intimate life with the several village girls. When the locals realize that these plans will not come true, they blame him for the failure.

Screening of the synonymous Milos Crnjanski's poetic novel about the tragedy of Serbian people who scattered their energy and bones from Dnepr to Lotaringia during XVII and XIX century. The great Serbian migration topic is given through the military campaign of major Vuk Isakovic (Avtandil Makharadze) at the head of Slavonian-Danube regiment, from spring of 1744. to spring of the next year. The second topic follows tragic but passionate relationship between Vuk's younger brother and his wife, which ends with her long-lasting disease and death.

Black Horses is a film about the destiny of Serbian people who are forced to endure the "rule from the North" against their will. The empress Maria Theresia has designated their region of Banat to be the dungeon for insubordinate citizens of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Fortunately, World War One has interfered and ended the rule of the Austrain emperors, but many wounds have remained, wounds that bore spite and on the basis of which the people began their struggle to find their identity, to gain their freedom and land and a better life. That kind of surroundings, full of those ready to exploit others and retort to violence, where a man is torn between honesty and fraud, was my inspiration to make a modern film focused on love "the thing a man can suffer for; a thing you can give your heart to; and a thing that can make your heart stop".

In June of 1942 Germans and their collaborators decide to get rid of partisans and their stronghold in the woods of Mount Kozara in Northern Bosnia. They encircle the mountain and begin the mop up operation. Out gunned and outnumbered the partisans must not only take care of themselves but try to protect thousands of refugees too.

In a typical Yugoslav company a relationship is developing between poltroon and CEO.

A group of kids from the Bosnian village often run away from school from the terror of Pepper, a teacher who got his nickname because of his red nose. Soon they formed a brigand division, but have been discovered and caught. The sudden arrival of year 1941 turns their game into reality.

A summer in the life of tourist-seducing boys.

A Serbian family leaves the troubled Kosovo region after Albanians rape the daughter in front of her mother. When they leave their home after the assault, their family tombs are desecrated, and the move to northern Serbia is marked by rejection by the local people of their new community.

Educator and those educated in a home for juvenile delinquents in the same test: approach, take a peek into his soul to become a man. The story of a minor, neglected boys-offenders and their teachers who try to reject the old methods of rehabilitation.

Nemanja leads a normal life with a steady job and a fiancée, until he is waylaid by a sudden downpour in a seedy hotel called The Wheel. The hotel is populated by seemingly upstanding citizens, until Nemanya is accused of being the notorious Laughing Monster, a serial killer who has been terrorizing the neighborhood.

A poor laborer, Zilio, wants to marry Betìa, the daughter of a rich peasant woman. After a number of refusals Zilio is desperate, but his friend Nale plots a sham marriage between the two, convinced he can take advantage of it.

Šorga's, the retired boxing champion nicknamed "Tiger", wife leaves him for a wealthier guy. He meets a juvenile thief, Čok, and decides to become his father figure. In the process of changing Čok, Šorga changes himself.

A married woman is living an unexcited life, until she meets a man who is able to put a smile on her face again, at least for a couple of days.

Teenagers Marija and Boba fall in love. When Marija gets pregnant, Boba's friends come up with a plan to help the young couple out.

A corrupt village commissar insists on mounting a production of Hamlet. The clever local teacher, however, casts the son of a man framed for theft as Hamlet, and the commissar as the usurping king, leading to a climax of truly Shakespearean proportions.

In Autumn of 1941, the German army, determined to put down a Communist-led uprising in Serbia, is conducting a policy of killing 100 hostages for any German soldier killed. The city of Kraljevo is the site of one of those massacres, portrayed in this movie.

German forces in Yugoslavia set out to destroy the stronghold of Tito with a traitor's help, but are overcome by Partisan resistance.

The movie is based on the true story about a group of children, barely teenagers, who joined Yugoslav Partizans after losing their families in WW2. At first, Partizans want to get rid of them, but later they are joining combat ranks. Among them, Bosko Buha would become a legend because of his skill in destroying enemy bunkers.

The murder of a famous gynecologist occurred under unusual circumstances. Inspectors found the doctor's apartment door open.

Old man Repovz recalls experiences of the WWII in an entertaining, comic way rather than tragic. A man breaks his arm to avoid being drafted; the other man shoots fire to scare enemy soldiers; love stories, as well as troubles with forced collectivization took place there. A partisan hero finds out that he lost her fiancee, but somewhat cheers up when his white horse comes back to him...

The experiences and adventures of three “thirty-something” buddies who involuntarily find themselves caught up in civil unrest. At first it is simply a jaunt in their boss ‘Porsche’ which their “borrow” without permission to drive to Triest, however, it becomes an adventure.

Two boys are on an unplanned vacation by foot. They meet a girl who has nothing but a bikini under her coat. She says her cloths were stolen while she was bathing. She joins their company. They steel cloths for her. There is a little kissing with both but nothing that could make the other jealous. During most of the movie they enjoy minor pleasures. But occasionally when the girl is alone she has attacks of very painful emotions. In the end it turns out that she is a former child-prisoner of a German KZ-lager, who had run away from a mental hospital in bikini and coat. Some of the staff were searching for her. But when she sees them she commits suicide.

The story of political prisoners, detained in a jail before the start of the WWII, and their torture and attempts to escape, and join a partisan unit.

After WW II many young people arrive to Zagreb, among them a young worker Sonja Kacar. She is supposed to participate in the construction of the first generator in the Rade Koncar factory. Because there aren't enough experts and materials in Yugoslavia, the factory counts on help from fellow communist countries, Czechoslovakia and Soviet Union. However, after the Inform Bureau's resolution this help is no longer available. Sonja experiences a great intimate disappointment because Stjepan, who she is in love with, supports Stalin.

A boy's careless childhood is interrupted when he finds out about his parents' decision to divorce.

Last school days of one graduating generation. They should say goodbye to a part of life, part from their friends, and there is also uncertainty, hope, plans, wild love "for the rest of the life", and parents with their ambitions, and it would be all incomplete, if not for professors who are slowly losing their authority. Senior prom is the central place for serious and funny events in which parents, professors and pupils are involved.

A small town in the first year of the war. A story about young seamstress, a student, a traitor and two Czech artists, their joining the partisans. All of them die and girl stays alone. She's looking for a bicycle bell that is gone...

A sickly village girl wants to marry a house painter, who only prefers to fool around.

In the suburban environment of 1960s Belgrade, thieves and vagabonds were first who escaped from poverty, while simple individuals who believed in ideals, paid a costly price for their misconceptions. Life is very difficult to a family of a pilot who spent 14 years in prison on the basis of false testimony. Her husband's prosecution is his wife's fate, while his daughter doesn't even know that her father is alive. After many migrations and wanderings, the mother meets a soft-spoken yet unscrupulous man who'll promise her marriage, and rape her daughter. The mother eventually ends up at asylum, and the father returns from prison at the right time to help their daughter in life which crucial lessons she already mastered.

A disabled man takes on the system when his pension is tied up in a morass of red tape. His story is revealed on a television program, and the star of the show is admonished for trying to incite the public against the system. The media, the man and the television manager gather to try to talk out the misunderstandings they all experience with the system of slow-moving social injustices. The message of the film also states that the days of media scrutiny and public-opinion feedback are here to stay.

In this amusing antiwar comedy, seven inept and reluctant soldiers land on a desert island to carry on with the fighting. Just after their parachutes have collapsed behind them on the beach, helicopters approach and land nearby. Out pops a bevy of beautiful women sent to entertain the troops, which they do, and then they leave. From that point onward, there are a series of misadventures

The movie protagonist is an ordinary man from Belgrade. His daughter was stolen by his junkie wife and later sold to a rich American family. Our hero goes to America in order to find her.

Mirko is happily married man in his forties, employed in a record company. His quiet life is interrupted when a pretty young woman moves into an apartment on the upper floor. With the help of his friend Stipe, Mirko tries to seduce the aspiring singer - but their plans don't work out as expected.

In Savamala, the most notorious part of Belgrade, lives an eighteen-year-old young man. In this turbulent atmosphere, different passions collide, and there are hints that the bloody strikes are a prelude to a major battle. The young man tries to escape from the slums and live in a better society. He falls in love and draws comics, while Savamala offers him the misery of everyday life, the world of criminals, gamblers, anarchists, singers and failed poets.

True story about the brass band of a fire brigade during WW2.

Two themes arise from the story, themes that are interlocked: the theme of love and of man's eternal submission to traditional symbols. The director Živko Nikolić continues his movie saga of human nature. Both themes develop the mythical idea of temptation. It is basic human relation: from the intimate to the families' vying with each other.

A story about rich lady who invites a poor fellow to her house with intentions to marry him. He accepts her offer, yet it soon proves that the reason were his high debts, as well as prostitute he's secretly seeing. The story becomes more complex when the lady starts an affair with their gardener.

A documentary about the history of Yugoslavian Film Festival in Pula and ex-Yu cinema in general. Many legends of ex-Yu cinema were interviewed here.

In 1883 Milan Obrenovic, arrogant and despotic king of Serbia, felt threatened by the militia segments of his army. In order to remove that threat he disbanded militia. However, people of Timok Valley decide not to surrender their arms to the regular troops. The movie was made for the 100th anniversary of the event.

The story of a group of people who came to France to the temporary work, their sufferings, persecutions, and a constant struggle for survival.

The first soft core porn flick made in former Yugoslavia (today Croatia). It was a huge cause celebre for the participants and equally infamous for its innumerable shortcomings ranging from the lack of coherent plot-line to the most basic elements of film making. However, in time, it has gained a somewhat cult reputation. A priceless insight into an odd culture and its lax sexual mores and follies!

Having used someone else’s I.D. he had found in a barber shop, Boda is mistakenly being proclaimed an inspector. He finds himself in all sorts of adventures, discovers some big machinations in one company and helps in catching the deceiver.

Buzga the shepherd, an object of ridicule among his fellow villagers, discovers his painting talent and becomes famous. Their envy leads them to paint themselves and try to outperform him, but after realizing that only Buzga's paintings are valued, they decide to steal his works.

Private detective Emil Marlovsek can boast a wealth of solved cases of run away and lost dogs. He is assisted in his work by his secretary Beba and Milivoj, a retired officer of the Yugoslav National Army. One evening, Emil encounters the beautiful Sara in the bar where he occasionally plays the piano and falls in love at first sight. The next morning Sara disappears. Not long after he is paid a visit by entrepreneur Grubelic whose wife is missing. Emil soon realizes that she is Sara and immediately starts to search for her. He discovers that Sara is being held prisoner by the mafia, on account of her husband's fishy business involving people in high places. The story's outcome is completely unexpected.