Sandbag Dam

In a small town in Croatia, the weather forecast is for heavy rain and flooding, and the townspeople are adding sandbags to buttress the local levee.

Nearing high school graduation, Marko has decided not to go to college, but stay and help his father expand his auto repair business. His father is also coaching him for an arm-wrestling competition. He shares a room with his younger brother Fico, who is fond of bunnies, and he tells Fico a story of a boy whose favorite "wild bunny" friend suddenly left without saying goodbye.

The story is an allegory about his former best friend / boyfriend / 1st love Slaven, who abruptly left 3 years ago for Berlin, but is now back in town for his father's funeral. After initial resistance, Marko returns to his old ways with Slaven, while finding that his desire for girlfriend Petra has disappeared.

This is rather dark and moody, with repeated images of the river's running water, possibly symbolic of Marko's mood. Marko is quite convincing as the horny straight boy until his old flame reappears. There may be a bit too much arm wrestling in the movie. I saw this at the Inside Out film festival, and afterwards we were debating what the ending actually was.