Morning

Jutro; Drama, Serbia, 1967; D: Mladorad 'Puriša' Đorđević, S: Ljubiša Samardžić, Milena Dravić, Mija Aleksić, Neda Arnerić, Ljuba Tadić, Neda Spasovjević

Serbia after World War II. A young partisan soldier tries to keep order in his place - and persuade a girl to do "Greek cart" together. But he doesn't have success in anything while he sweeps the country from Fascists. One of the villagers survived during occupation by painting posters for the Germans. The soldier's friend falls in love with a Russian soldier who came to help him. In a house, they find an enemy ambush, so they liquidate them. Then they meet a murderer of 73 people who calmly tells them about his crimes. Also, a center for culture is established, while the soldier fights to save his friend Aleksandra from execution since she betrayed partisans in torture from the enemy. She is shot and killed, but the soldier kills her executor.

Excellent post war drama "Morning" was rightfully awarded at various movie festivals, from Pula to Berlin, yet was still somehow sadly swept away with time from the list of remembered films. Director Puriša Đorđević calmly, tightly and with an easy hand, far away from tedious anxiety of war genre, dissipates various destinies of his characters and skillfully combines them into a mosaical whole that all tell a bigger picture. A few humorous moments show up here and there, like when kids bribe the soldiers with brandy to shoot from the cannons, a soldier who goes to a bunch of women in order to invite them to dance but they just pass by him or the shrill dialogues ("My neighbor's name was 'Umbrella Repairman' so he always had trouble telling his occupation"). Besides the lightness of story, even a few visual touches are original, like when the camera follows the couple walking for 2 minutes while they are framed by silhouettes of letters and postcards.

Grade:+++