THE PROFESSIONAL

Print-shop owner Teja is having a busy day: his workers want to go on strike. And his secretary announces a visitor whom she cannot get rid of, no matter how hard she tries. The unwelcome guest arrives with a suitcase full of objects that look familiar to Teja – and a story that begins to intrigue his host, because it is the story of the two of them: Luka – as the visitor calls himself – was Teja’s shadow, a secret policeman, a professional. During the Milošević regime, he shadowed the radical oppositionist Teja for years and even interfered with the most private aspects of his victim’s life – be it as a saboteur or a protector. By and by, the atmosphere of latent threat through the stranger subsides while Teja’s curiosity grows. The two opponents come close to fraternizing, but are always interrupted by the angry demands of the workers. Director Dušan Kovačević has adapted his own play into an ironic character-piece – not only about life in a police state, not only about the absurdity of making a bogeyman out of the enemy which has had grave consequences in his home-country, but also about the uncertainties of existence and the dynamics between appearances and reality.