Drzava mrtvih

Watching this movie will tell you a story of the civil war in Yugoslavia during 1990s as seen from a point of view of an average officer of the former Yugoslav Army.

Janez Kranjc, a Slovene, was all his life devoted and proudly loyal to the Yugoslav cause. When the time came to choose sides at what was the beginning of the Yugoslav break-up, he did the only thing he believed was right an honorable. He chose Yugoslav ideal before local-patriotism, and by doing so sacrificed a future and career prospects of his whole family. They had to leave his native Slovenia and became effectively refugees in Belgrade.

There were fewer and fewer true Yugoslavs in Belgrade, though, and he slowly realizes that he is now just another foreigner in what he still believed was his country. A traitor to the Slovenes and just another Slovene to the Serbs...

Zivojin Pavlovic has been one of the best proponents of naturalist/realist style of cinema in Yugoslavia and as such this film is distinctive among other Yugoslav films depicting the wars of the 90s. It is very true to what really happened to thousands of honorable people in uniform during that dark decade.

A difficult film to watch, it did justice to a very serious topic.