Discoveries from Yugoslavia World Cinema

In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.

For the young man who lives in Serbian province town, the maturing coincides with the turbulent political events of the year 1968.

Perhan is a gypsy teenager with telekinetic powers. A wealthy gypsy, Ahmed, visits the village and promises to get Perhan's sister the medical treatment she needs if they join him to Italy. Perhan soon discovers that Ahmed's business activities are in fact quite shady and he is soon lured into the elder's corrupt surroundings.

A small-time hustler makes a deal with a notorious gangster to whom he owes money: marry his teenage son to the latter's daughter. However, the young lovers are not as agreeable.

Black marketeers Marko and Blacky manufacture and sell weapons to the Communist resistance in WWII Belgrade, living the good life along the way. Marko's surreal duplicity propels him up the ranks of the Communist Party, and he eventually abandons Blacky and steals his girlfriend. After a lengthy stay in a below-ground shelter, the couple reemerges during the Yugoslav Civil War of the 1990s as Marko sees the opportunity to exploit the situation.

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 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.

A group of travelers are forced to seek shelter inside an abandoned jail where a notorious nun named Sister Monday had once been assigned and was suspected of murdering prisoners.

Moorish ruler El Mansuh is determined to locate a massive bell made of gold known as the "Mother of Voices." Viking explorer Rolfe also becomes intent on finding the mythical treasure, and sails with his crew from Scandinavia to Africa to track it down. Reluctantly working together, El Mansuh and Rolfe, along with their men, embark on a quest for the prized object, but only one leader will be able to claim the bell as his own — if it even exists at all.

In the mountains of Montenegro people have lived by strict and Draconian laws for centuries, almost untouched by modern civilization. However, a young couple are going to seek their fortune on the more liberal coast and there they find jobs in the nudist colony. Hundreds of naked bodies and atmosphere of joie d'vivre make the husband and wife question their rigid way of life.

The setting is a Central European kingdom, near the turn of the century. Bored by his very proper wife, the youthful heir to the throne spends his time in amorous dalliances at a sprawling country estate. His wife departs at the arrival of his friends, and they organize a celebration which becomes a wild orgy and culminates in death and tragedy.

In 1389, the Serbian prince Lazar Hrebeljanović refused to submit to the Turkish Sultan Murat, who was invading Serbia with a large army, in order to continue conquering Europe through it.

A frustrated and unemployed architect experiences flashbacks of his youth and 1968 protests while the life passes by. Unable to adapt and to accept the reality, he’s constantly getting into conflicts with the people around him.

Growing up in 1960s Sarajevo, a young man comes of age under the shadow of his good, but ailing father, but is attracted by the world of small-time criminals. He's hired to hide a young prostitute, whom he falls in love with.

A movie about Montenegrin mafia during 1990s, the times of rampant crime rate in the Balkans.

In the opening stages of the Bosnian War, a small group of Serbian soldiers are trapped in a tunnel by a Muslim force.

When Emir Feofar Khan, leader of the Tartar hordes, takes up arms and invades the steppes of Eastern Siberia, Czar Alexander II of Russia entrusts the brave officer Michael Strogoff with a dangerous mission.

In order to check the German offensive, Partizans send an elite team of explosive experts to blow up a strategically important bridge. Besides being heavily guarded, that bridge is almost indestructible and the only man who knows weak spots in the construction is the architect who built it. He is, however, reluctant to cooperate because he doesn't want to see his masterpiece destroyed.

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.

Black ant Ameisen, the infantry ant, got mixed up in war and love turmoils. He's an experienced military slacker who does not respect strict military standards, but performs each task successfully. Red ants, headed by their clumsy general, are on the war path with black ants. Unfortunately for both sides, war happened because of a jar of moldy marmalade.

In a post-WWII Yugoslavia still under Stalinist rule in the 1950s, six-year-old Malik is oblivious as to why his father, Mehmed, has suddenly disappeared. In truth, Mehmed has been sent to a labor camp as punishment for acts of sexual indiscretion involving young girls. Malik's mother, Senija, however, has no answers, and the family must cope in the father's absence.

Trials and tribulations of a Croatian communist intellectual in the turbulent years before, during and after the Second World War.

On Saturday, 5 April 1941, one day before the Invasion of Yugoslavia of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, a colourful group of random passengers on a country road deep in the heart of Serbia board a dilapidated bus, headed for the capital Belgrade. The group includes two gypsy musicians, a World War I veteran, a Germanophile, a budding singer, a sickly looking man, and a hunter with a shotgun. The bus is owned by Krstic senior, and driven by his impressionable and dim-witted son Misko.

The Topalović family has been in the burial business for generations. When the 150-year-old Pantelija dies, five generations of his heirs start to fight for the inheritance.

The story of two workers who returned from abroad. One of them wants to find a good job, Adam, and the other one wants to earn money by smuggling, Beli. Between them two there's young woman, Mila, who has had experience with the second one. Running away from the man who is the incarnation of evil for her, she is trying to find happiness and peace with another one in vain.

The action takes place in the period from 1930 to 1934. The main protagonist is a so-called “collective hero”, that is, the revolutionary movement of Yugoslavia during the 1930s, although, conditionally speaking, the main hero is Rodoljub Colakovic.

Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself emperor and fights the English, Austrians and Russians in 1802.

After many adventures, a young female switchboard operator starts a love relationship with a serious young man. But while he's away on business, she gets lonely and succumbs to her colleague's passes.

Banović Strahinja takes place during the middle ages in Serbia. While estate owner Strahinja is hunting, a Turkish bandit, Alija, attacks his castle. The Turks kill his servants and kidnap his beloved Andja. When he discovers what has happened, Strahinja gathers a together a group of scoundrels and chases the bandits.

A young man wants to marry the beautiful daughter of a landowner who refuses to allow the marriage. To prove his worth, the young man becomes a miller in a vampire-infested local mill.

One camera in one setting, one attic and eight young directors – the result is a unique Dadaistic collage of seven short sketches. The original task for each filmmaker was to keep each short under three minutes, to set it in one hotel room, and to include the sentence “I miss Sonja Henie." This experimental film was shot over a single night at the international film festival FEST in Beograd in 1971.

Super 8mm film.

When a villain named "Der Schut" terrorizes the constituents of Albanian country, which he rules, heroic Kara Ben Nemsi and his sidekick are the only ones who can stop him.

Convinced that his subtenant is a spy and an enemy of the state, Ilija Čvorović falls into deep paranoia which leads to an absurd and destructive chain of events.

During the excavation of ancient Roman ruins, an old archaeology professor accidentally opens the gate between our world and the world of the dead.

A young girl, Vesna, goes on a skiing vacation to Slovenian Alps, where she is being looked after by her aunt. Her family gets worried when they meet Vesna's boyfriend, and try to marry the couple, thinking that she may be pregnant with him.

Film about a hat which changes its owners, until it ends up in the possession of a beggar who collects charity with it.

An Albanian pilgrim, infected with an unknown disease, is on his way back to Belgrade from the Middle East. When doctors realize that it is a disease that has been considered eradicated, it is already too late - variola vera begins to languish and the hospital is quarantined.

Two parallel tales about two modern women. One is Štefica Cvek, average and lonely girl who desperately tries to find the man of her dreams. The other story is about a woman director who is making the movie about Štefica and has the same problem.

A cult stage play from the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo, which involves the professor and the gallery of grotesque candidates devoid of any talent who applied for entrance exams.

In this entertaining, clever satire, it is the beginning of World War II and a group of con artists and thieves decide to pose as musicians under the rubric "The Balkan Express".

The protagonist, Bora, is a charming but mean-spirited gypsy, while his older wife, Lence, is submissive. Bora is in love with the younger Tisa, who is being offered in marriage by her father. The two get themselves in trouble and eventually have to flee. Tisa rejects her husband and she and Bora get married in the church, and their adventures continue.

During the Yugoslav break-up, Federal Army officer is fed up with war and takes some leave in Belgrade. However, it turns out that he is less haunted by war horrors than with some sentimental skeletons in the closet. He meets his former comrade and best friend who is AWOL, but can't report him because he had an affair with his wife.

At 56 years of age Mita Pantic is still only a junior clerk in his company. Another typical workday for him is starting at 6 a.m. as frustration awaits at every turn from the moment he gets up. Trying to get ready to go to work, he can barely get a turn to use the bathroom in the crowded apartment. Other members of the household are not without their frustrations either, meaning that nagging and shouting are a staple of their home life at any time of day.

Yugoslav partisans battle Nazi invaders in a series of bloody confrontations which eventually culminate in the Battle at Hell River.

In the summer of 1944, in a peaceful resort town in the Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia, an easy-going lifeguard takes in a widow of a partisan and her young son. Their relationship grows until he unknowingly saves a Nazi officer from drowning.

Story of children growing up in Yugoslavia right after the end of World War II.

A young cavalry officer finds his woman tortured by the Apaches and blames the Army for not properly protecting the outpost, so becomes a deserter and an avenger, stalking and killing Indians without warning.

A seductive and ruthless spy in the service of Germany steals state secrets- including the formula for poison gas-from England and France during World War I. British intelligence, in turn, tries to hunt her down.

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.

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

Due to misunderstanding and hard life, a man divorces his wife and leaves the city. He comes to a new environment, meeting new people and new wife. Crucified between two worlds, he does everything to bring her two sons on the right track, and getting on with his own life. Lost in that space, powerless to change things significantly, he commits murder.

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.

When it comes to crime, Belgrade is same as any other modern metropolis, except for having its own serial killers. That blank is filled when a flower salesman begins strangling women. A popular, but very disturbed rock star soon becomes telepathically connected with the killer.

Life and times of Nikola Tesla, famous scientist whose inventions were stolen, but whose greatest contribution to mankind remain a mystery to this day.

The leftover disbanded partisan battalion draws Chetniks' attention, who push their plans of attacking the partisan headquarters aside and start hunting them instead.

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

What does the energy harnessed through orgasm have to do with the state of communist Yugoslavia circa 1971? Only counterculture filmmaker extraordinaire Dušan Makavejev has the answers (or the questions). His surreal documentary-fiction collision begins as an investigation into the life and work of controversial psychologist and philosopher Wilhelm Reich and then explodes into a free-form narrative of a beautiful young Slavic girl’s sexual liberation.

This WW2 epic was one of the last movies of that kind made in former Yugoslavia. It tells the true story of great transport of Partizans from Vojvodina to Bosnia in 1943.

After becoming a minister's wife, Živka changes her former way of life and becomes a lady. However, her fashionable way of life is of short duration, since her husband is forced to resign after being involved in a scandal. Based on highly popular Serbian comedy novel by Branislav Nušić.