THE PARTY

1991. Serbia is fighting a yet undeclared war with Croatia. But people can’t think about the horrors all the time – they also want to live, love, forget, and celebrate. Some couples drive to a birthday-party at the house of a friend – each one of them with his or her own perceptions, plans, hopes and worries. The men fear they might be drafted and try to hide – more or less efficiently – from the military-police; but without much of a chance to evade the Soldateska. The war is everywhere. When thunder roars outside, nobody knows if it’s cannons or the forces of nature. But even among the party-guests, nature demands its due, as the will to live expresses itself in various ways: be it lack of restraint in search of quick sex, resentment against the alleged enemy at something as innocent as a soccer-game, or self- inflicted numbness that’s meant to smother the terror and its consequences. This is why the party quickly slides into sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. Couples hook up, couples break up in this (not so) merry-go-round of love, anger and fear. Director Aleksandar Daviæ wanted to avoid easy explanations with his first feature; instead, he retraces a sensation that ruled him and his peers at the time: the feeling of being victimized by a war they did not want, a war they didn’t think they had anything to do with. But the youth of Serbia was not asked. During the end-credits the fate of the protagonists is revealed: the rest of their lives were as torn as their country, leading them across the globe. If they survived at all, that is.