A communist school principal forges diplomas for charity. What could go wrong in Yugoslavia?
Our story takes place at the end of the 1960s. This is the time of the collapse of the ideals of a more just and honorable life brought into prominence by students worldwide in the great rebellion in 1968 and of the beginning of the end of an equally grand illusion called Yugoslavia. Andjelko is the principal of a middle school in a small Bosnian place Dubica. He believes in Yugoslavia and worships its leader Josip Broz Tito. Andjelko, however, has one serious fault: he is a forger, he makes forged school diplomas. He does not do this out of self-interest, but because he is a staunch philanthropist. One day, a neighbor for whom Andjelko forged the leather-working school diploma, in order to take revenge on the local veterinarian, reports to the police that this one too has Andjelko's diploma. Our hero is, therefore, forced to flee to the big city. He lives there illegally, at the harborers of outlaws for whom he once forged diplomas. But one day, Andjelko runs into his schoolmate...
Acting
Tihomir Stanić's perfectly calibrated desperation and dignity.
Direction
Marković balances political tragedy with farcical energy.
Production
Evocative 1968 period detail in crumbling provincial Yugoslavia.
Director
Goran Marković
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film captures the specific melancholy of 1968 Yugoslavia—after the student protests, before the wars, when ideology still felt like a choice rather than a death sentence.
Director Goran Marković is Serbian cinema royalty—his father Rade directed classics, and Goran spent decades chronicling Yugoslav moral collapses with bitter affection.
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