Archive Cinema City 2011.
Genre: Drama
Synopsis:
One day, an orphan girl called ROMI (6) is brought to Alex (52). The girl may or may not be Alex’s child from a random encounter with a prostitute. While driving Romi to a near-by town and Social Welfare Center, where he plans to hand her over to the authorities, Alex tells Romi in flashback form a story about his childhood, from the time of his accidental and unwanted conception in 1939 to age eight.
Alex’s mother JELENA (25), a communist activist, is carried away by her grandiose ideals yet is incapable of loving those closest to her. The only person who offers Alex any love and warmth during his childhood is WERNER KRAUS (35), a high-ranking officer of the Wermacht, accommodated in the house of Alex’s family during the German occupation of Yugoslavia.
Alex remembers the story-telling sessions, piano playing, picnics and trips to the movies, all of which were from the time he spent with Werner. Apart from his love towards Alex, Werner is having a secret affair with Jelena at the same time. However, fearful of love, Jelena uses her relationship with him for her work in the resistance movement. Werner loses his rank as a result, and when his family is killed during the Berlin bombing by the Allied forces, he completely withdraws into himself. Alex manages to get close to him. After the war, when Werner realizes the extent to which the child has been neglected, he takes Alex along. The Allied planes attack awithdrawing German military convoy, and Werner gets killed as he throws himself over Alex to protect him.
Since then, intellectually longing to be a part of Werner’s higher culture, Alex becomes a severely love-deficient person, just like his mother. Through the story he tells Romi, Alex experiences catharsis and becomes more humane. As a result, when they finally reach the Social Welfare Center, Alex makes a decision contrary to his initial intention – he decides to adopt Romi.
