Dörfer in Flammen

My opinion is that this movie is one of the strongest anti-war drama ever made. Only problem that comes is that you must be Serb to completely understand this movie. The thing is, every single second of the movie, every single word, the soundtrack are the row of symbols that creates a giant and complex puzzle made of historical events, way of living on Balkans, way of painting the portraits that will show you and let you to understand how did the war in Bosnia happened.

Movie is retrospective story, based on the true events. It is actually a row of memories of the two Bosnian Serb soldiers who survived few horrific days, trapped in tunnel, during the war in 1991. The tunnel was occupied by Muslim soldiers and with that fact we get to the first problem that was later, after the movie was finished and played in cinemas, used as main weapon of critics, saying that Serbs just want to show that they were victims in war.

For everyone, who will watch this movie, and who doesn't live on Balkans, I'll try to explain some basic facts of the movie, and also, I'll try not to spoil your enjoying.

This movie is a story of all consequences that war brings us. It is universal story of war, showing some basic facts that are similar to all wars, but in the same time, movie describes some things that are connected only with war in Bosnia.

The story starts in hospital, where the wounded are transported from the battlefield. There, the director introduce us with two characters. Two soldiers who survived the tunnel. Milan and Proffesor, both Bosnian Serbs. From their perspective, dialogs and memories,story leads us back, in Milan's childhood, where we can see his relationship with his friend Halil ( who is Bosnian Muslim ). Later, when the war begins, these two friend will be on different side of the tunnel. Halil, in the squad of the Muslim who occupied it, Milan with the Serbian squad who was trapped in the tunnel. Then the story goes on, introducing us , with whole Serbian soldiers and one American journalist who got there accidentally , trapped in tunnel. Every soldier has his own reasons that will make you understand, why did they checked in Serbian army, and why did they wanted to go on the battlefield. Than, the story goes straight, showing us events in the tunnel ( memories ) and the happenings in Belgrade ( real time ), during the protests against Slobodan Milosevic's regime ( one of the major facts that explains directors anti-war point ). Story goes on with shocking scenes, melancholic atmosphere, and tragic events that will lead to the final conflict. Did war changed Milan? His final confrontation is wounded Muslim prisoner of war who lies on the same floor of the hospital as he does. Did Milan became a dog of war?

Story was written by journalist Vanja Bulic, who was a host of TV drama-show called "Biseri" ( in English "The Pearls" ). Milan, the main character in the movie, is actually a guy who was a guest in that show. He told Vanja his shocking story and than the screenplay was written, off course, with some artistic changes.

This movie is grotesque, shocking, drama about one time on Balkans. About fall of former Yugoslavia. About mentality of the all people who lived in it. Check the lyrics in soundtrack, listen closely every word in dialogs, follow the symbols... I hope you will understand that there is no winner, there is no loser. Point is always the same, there is only destruction, there is only just suffering.

Don't let the low marks take you away from this masterpiece - look at stars assignment, and you will get the picture.

If you expect black and white war movie, forget it. For me, this is by far most objective movie about civil war(s) in ex-Yugoslavia, better then Bosnian (good) "No man's land" and Macedonian (masterpiece) "Before the rain". At the beginning, you will see Serbs burning villages (that explain title of movie) and killing people, but, from middle to end, you will see completely same behavior done by Bosnian Muslims. Brilliance of this movie is because it shows you why this war was so bloody and why it is so hard to have peace and reconciliation after all. Every killing, every murder, has story behind, and movie gather them all. You have pure communist (Bata Zivojinovic) against his fellow officer, you have two best friends (Nikola Bjelogrlic - Bosnian Serb, Nikola Pejakovic - Bosnian Muslim) against each other, you have urban freaks, you have junkies, you have educated teacher, you have everything you need. Every one of them has his own reason to be there, but at the end, they all end completely empty, with only pure hate inside.

I suppose that some things from movie will be hard to get if you are not from Balkan. For example, Index (that's name of the bend) song that Nikola Kojo sing using gun as mice, was one of the greatest classics in ex-Yu (and lyrics fit the scene perfectly: "And tonight, if she listen, let her hear the pain..."). Some sentences are very hard to translate. For example, in joke scene, when Zoran Cvijanovic (junkie) want to insult Bosnian Muslim soldiers, he tell them joke that begins with "Check this out: Blonde, I mean Fata the Blonde, come to party..." Fata is Muslim name, but is obvious that joke was first intended as joke abound blonde woman, but he upgraded it in the moment. Also, in one scene you can see Serbian skinheads that are kicking traffic table with "Zagreb" (Croatian capital) written on it. Two are holding the table, one is hitting it by the head, and they are all singing "We f*cked Tajci! We f*cked Tajci!" Tajci was ex-Yu singer from Croatia that represented country on Eurovision competition few years before war started. Also, most of the scenes are extremely dark and funny at the same time, but that's Serbian humor in general.

Even without this small hints, movie still remain pure classic, to me comparable only with "Apocalypse now" and "Platoon" by its objectivity. It is very fast movie, easy to watch and hard to understand, as Balkan always was. I hope you will enjoy.

even if you were not on balkans - ex-Yugoslavia, this movie will 'hurt' you... and if you are from there - it just kills you, makes you feel pain, and laugh at the same time... it is about a great country that does not exist anymore - and maybe never existed, and about OGRE from the tunnel whick lives in each and every one of us. the subtitles (for USA) are not the first class.the translation could have been done better. anyway great movie.

I've seen it again today. I've seen it ten years ago when it first came out. On a 17x copied VHS bootleg tape, and now on DVD. Without going into details, I can only say this is one of the movies that I've seen many times and each time I see it it strikes me as the best of the best. It's multi layered and highly symbolic at times, due to that, the only ones to understand it fully are people that have a good understanding of the Balkan wars and/or the mentality of the characters. Some see it as pro-Serbian propaganda, other see it as anti-Serbian. And that alone makes it worth watching for me. Anyways, it's a chilling and wonderful masterpiece. Sad, bleak, darkly humorous at times but very very VERY good.

As a man who was participating this conflict and I can only say that this movie more realistically pictures the war in Bosnia, then any other ever. Every time I watch this movie, it makes my heart beats so strong like I'm there again and revives all the memories forgotten long time ago. The whole story try's to explain this conflict from very essence of our people, covering various aspects of how different people have got involved in this war. Off course I can't really say that 'explanation' really exists, but if it does this is the place to start from. There are some exaggerated moments, but they are so rhythmically composed, that whole picture at the end becomes very strong and logical.

I believe many viewers won't be able to accept this story, but that's their problem, I guess... For those who are openminded, not prejudiced and ready to see the other side of medal (whatever it might be!), this can be a masterclass lesson not only about the war, but about the hidden human nature, that most of people never have a 'chance' to find in themselves, but it undoubtfully exists in each of us!

For people who liked this movie, I can even more recommend other Dragojevic's masterpiece - 'Rane' ('Wounds'), which is not a typical war movie, but from other side of view gives story never spoken so far.