Direction, screenplay: Želimir Žilnik; Cinematography: Arpad Nemet; Editing: Slobodan Jandrić; Cast: Buda Brakus, Spasoje Ilić, Rade Kantar, Ćetko Obradović. YU, 1980, DCP (16mm), in color, 98 min, Serbian with English subtitles
In this documentary, fifteen-year-old Pavle Hromiš, obeying the will of his parents, leaves Germany and goes to live in Yugoslavia with his grandmother in the village of Kucura. He attends secondary school and lives in a boarding house where he meets new friends, but has problems with the language and different school curriculum. He wants to go back to Germany, and he gets involved in many discussions about that.
Žilnik’s interest in children going off to school in different cities and living away from their families was personal, because his aunt, who raised him, was the director of a big boarding house in Novi Sad. When Žilnik started researching the pupils who would appear in his documentary, he was surprised to find many couldn’t speak the Serbian language well and were lost between two identities.
More information & tickets: Österreichisches Filmmuseum.