Milena is an attractive 50-something-year old who lives with
her husband in their comfortable middle-class home in a small suburb not far from Belgrade. She seems to spend her life of the edge of perpetually about to do something, which she never follows through on. Her days are spent aimlessly looking perplexed and anxious as her presence is ignored by her family who just take her for granted. Her grown up daughter has moved to Belgrade and has own city life in which she does not involve her mother in. Her son has also left home and just flits in and out of the house when he wants his laundry done. Her husband prefers drinking with his wartime buddies and although she and the other wives tag along they are hardly the centre of attention. The only real joy in her life seems to be singing in choir of the church that she is very attached too.
her husband in their comfortable middle-class home in a small suburb not far from Belgrade. She seems to spend her life of the edge of perpetually about to do something, which she never follows through on. Her days are spent aimlessly looking perplexed and anxious as her presence is ignored by her family who just take her for granted. Her grown up daughter has moved to Belgrade and has own city life in which she does not involve her mother in. Her son has also left home and just flits in and out of the house when he wants his laundry done. Her husband prefers drinking with his wartime buddies and although she and the other wives tag along they are hardly the centre of attention. The only real joy in her life seems to be singing in choir of the church that she is very attached too.One day mooching around the house she finds an old VHS tape and playing it is shocked to learn that her husband and his closest friends were personally involved in some dire war atrocities. This discovery is about the same time that the medical examination she has been putting off for years, reveals that she has an advanced case of breast cancer. After learning these two very different pieces of bad news, Milena gets even more withdrawn and goes into total denial and she simply refuses to either make any decisions on how to proceed, or ever discuss these with her family who are so self-involved that they just fail to notice any difference with her at all.
Her cancer is the first thing that she eventually goes public with and when she shares this with her husband he simply does not know how to re-acts and walks out of the room saying nothing. In all the years they have been married they have talked very little together. and its always been nothing beyond their usual daily routine. It’s obvious too late and too hard for them to change that habit now.However it seems that no matter how much her husband’s activities in the war really appall her, Milena is probably never going to discuss it with him, let alone make a public fuss. Then when one of his renegade colleagues threatens him with blackmail and then next day turns up dead, she knows she is left with no other choice.
The movie is the writing/directing debut of veteran Serbian actress Mirjana Karanovic who also stars as Milena and it is an earnest and serious look at how good life is for Serbs who were on victorious side of the civil war, but it all came at a very heavy price. Her excellent rather earnest drama that premiered at Sundance shows that really in war there are no winners, and she ensures that the somewhat surprising end was well worth the long wait to reach its conclusion.
