The Promising Boy
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The Promising Boy | |
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Serbo-Croatian | Dečko koji obećava |
Directed by | Miša Radivojević |
Written by | Nebojša Pajkić Miša Radivojević Bogdan Tirnanić |
Produced by | Ilija Milutinović Mirjana Mijojlić |
Starring | Aleksandar Berček Dara Džokić Rade Marković Bata Živojinović Dušica Žegarac Éva Darlan |
Cinematography | Božidar Nikolić |
Edited by | Vuksan Lukovac |
Music by | Koja |
Release date |
|
Running time | 106 minutes |
Country | SFR Yugoslavia |
Language | Serbo-Croatian |
The Promising Boy (
It also served as showcase of sorts for various bands of Yugoslav new wave and punk music scenes.
Plot
Twenty-four-year-old Slobodan Milošević (Aleksandar Berček) seemingly has the world by the tail. Growing up during the early 1980s in an upscale part of Belgrade as the only child in a well-off and respectable nomenklatura family—his father's a Yugoslav People's Army officer, mother a university professor—Slobodan is an exemplary young man in his own right. Studying at the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Medicine while dating beautiful, smart, and similarly upwardly mobile Maša (Dara Džokić), daughter of an influential communist Serbian politician father (Bata Živojinović) and free-spirited Slovenian mother (Milena Zupančič), Slobodan's an attentive boyfriend and considerate son to boot.
The opening scene has Slobodan listening to Russian bards and chansons on his stereo while respecting his parents' orders as Maša and her parents are coming over for a visit.
The two young lovebirds are having a traditional courtship, frequently socializing with the two sets of parents. Even when it comes to the young pair's sexual activity, Slobodan exercises restraint, insisting that the best place for sex is—a married couple's bed; Maša on the other hand is occasionally feeling adventurous, suggesting one night they do it in his yellow Volkswagen, the high school graduation gift from his parents. During the said sexual encounter, which Slobodan agrees to somewhat reluctantly, Maša informs him that on advice from her mother she has placed an intrauterine device in her genitalia as a contraceptive.
Driving around Belgrade in his car one morning, Slobodan picks up a female
Out for a day at the
This is just the beginning of Slobodan's extreme behavioural turnaround as the blow to his head seems to have caused a major change inside it. He stops coming home in favour of hanging out and crashing at other people's dorm rooms at
The young man's reckless behaviour continues as he shows up to Maša's apartment late one night, but gets informed by her mother that she had gone to Greece with her father for a holiday. Without missing a beat Slobodan puts the moves on his girlfriend's mother and soon ends up sleeping with her. The mature woman initially somewhat objects, but eventually submits herself gladly to the young man's physical advances. The next morning she makes him breakfast-in-bed, puts on a Bulat Okudzhava record, and initiates the "this can't continue" talk in motherly and patronizing tone to which he starts laughing hysterically before calling her a "menopausal whore whose daughter isn't much better" and leaving her angry and in tears. As he drives away, he pops in a tape in his car stereo with Šarlo Akrobata's "Niko kao ja" and starts masturbating before pulling over as he's about to climax. He soon sells the car in order to buy a motor bike.
Slobodan is also getting into the new wave music scene, watching bands at
External links
- The Promising Boy at IMDb