THE WOUNDS
Direction/Screenplay: Srdjan Dragojevic
Cast: Dusan Pekic, Milan Maric, Dragan Bjelogrlic
COLOR 1998
102 min., color, 1998, 35mm

This is a film about Serbia from 1991-1996, a period of a moral and material disaster. Two boys enter the world of the underground. Their idols are older Belgrade criminals and the TV talk show "Asphalt Pulse." The show's guests are the meanest and the fiercest guys from the streets of Belgrade (this kind of talk show really did exist on Belgrade TV).

The young men fantasize about being invited as guests to the talk show. Although they achieve this ambition, their rise in the world of crime is cut short by a violent argument between them.

One of them shoots the other four times, they are serious wounds, but he manages to stay alive. As soon as he's feeling better, he escapes from the hospital and calls his friend to reconcile. The reconciliation is a very dangerous, horrible and surprising one.

The film also follows their parents fate, from nationalistic fanaticism in 1991, over the lethargy and shame in 1994, to the democratic movement in Serbia in 1996.

"Rowdy cinematic outrage...Stylistic bravado"
-Janet Maslin, NEW YORK TIMES

"Bravura style and an uncommon focus on war's disintegration of civilian life...powerful and exhilerating"
- Jay Carr, BOSTON GLOBE

Director's Statement