Besa

At the very beginning of the 1st World War, Filip, a Serb and the principal of a high  school in a small Serbian town, is summoned urgently to Belgrade to serve in the war effort. He has no one to leave his wife, Lea, with. She is a young and pretty Slovenian woman, a teacher of rhythmics and dance he met while studying in Western Europe. Azem, an illiterate, patriarchal Albanian, the school custodian, gives Filip his solemn oath, his ‘Besa’ (in the Albanian tradition: when someone gives their word which must be kept even if they lose their life in the process) that he would look after Lea and see to it that nothing happened to her. Two Europeans, from two entirely different cultures and habits are forced to an awkward cohabitation in the empty school.

Director:

Directed over 70 documentaries, shorts, corporate and commercial films. He is teaching Film Directing at the Belgrade University of Dramatic Arts. Filmography: Something in Between (1983); Hard to Swallow (1985); Vigina (1991); A Film with No Name (1988); Loving Glances (2003).