Review by ereinion

The protagonist of this film is called Slobodan, which means free. I think that represents the main theme of this film-what does it mean and take to become really free? He is a promising medical student who seemingly lives a perfect life: he's a good son, a good boyfriend who has a good girlfriend and a good future. Then one day, it all changes when he gives a lift to a Swiss adventure-seeker named Clavis. He has sex with her and she calls him "the promising boy", which is the title of the film. Of course, it turns his world upside down and after receiving a bad blow to his head from his angry girlfriend (with an oar, of all things), he loses his mind-or you might say finds it.

He goes on a search for his real self, which leads him to cutting his hair and going to bed with several women, including his girlfriend's mother. He clashes violently with his authoritative father who doesn't accept his radical behavior and is then left to manage by himself. He meets a group of musicians through a girl he bedded, Pit and VD. They are played by two real-life famous musicians, who were then members of one of the best new wave bands from Serbia and Yugoslavia.

Anyway, this movie represents the individual's breakaway from the society's constraints, symbolized in Slobodan's free and uninhibited sex life and his musician lifestyle and new haircut as well. He even writes a song with homosexual undertones, despite not being a homosexual. He is out to shock and rebel against everything that is considered normal and acceptable. Ergo, he is free from every sort of norm. This is what this film explores, does it really make you free to break every rule of the society or does it just make you feel like an outcast. In the end Slobodan returns to his previous life, after a motorbike accident where he again receives a blow to the head. His lost weekend is now over and he returns to his girlfriend and his parents. The freedom experiment has now ended. Or so he thinks...

The cast is really top notch here, with Aleksandar Bercek delivering perhaps his strongest role ever. Rade Markovic is also excellent as his father and Branislav Lecic also appears in one of his first movie roles as his karate instructor friend. Slobodan Aligrudic, Dusica Zegarac and Bata Zivojinovic also appear. The soundtrack is excellent and features songs from all the best new wave bands of that time, which is another treat this movie has to offer. I think it's a forgotten classic of the Yugoslav cinema and I give it a 10.