"Nevjera" is an old-fashioned love story set in 19th Century Dubrovnik. The love story is situated in the times of very intense class struggle in Dubrovnik with local aristocracy losing wealth and clinging only to their tainted titles, working class gearing up to ask for their rights and obscure characters leaving Dubrovnik for colonized continents and returning home rich.
Since this screen version of the famous Ivo Vojnovic stageplay "Ekvinocij" was made in the fifties in Communist Yugoslavia, obviously the class-struggle and anti-colonialism are emphasized.
However, the emotional core of the film is the love story of a poor carpenter and nobleman's daughter. Their forbidden inter-class romance is jeopardized when a rich old hustler comes back from America to look for a wife and picks nobleman's daughter while forcing her father to accept his proposal in exchange for write-off of his debts. Plot thickens when the poor carpenter finds out that the rich hustler is his father.
Vladimir Pogacic's direction is a bit dated by fifties' standards and "Nevjera" feels as if it belongs in the 1930s. However, on the emotional level, "Nevjera" works and stands as one of the purest examples of period melodrama in the history of Yugoslav cinema.
