This 1981 Lordan Zafranovic directed film is the second part of the world war 2 trilogy started with the excellent "Okupacija u 26 slika" (1978) and the story picks up where the former left. Niko, played by Frano Lasic, the protagonist from the first film, also appears here in the first 20 minutes and thus provides the connection between the two films. The excellent Polish actor Daniel Olbrychski, known as the star of many Andrzej Wajda films, plays his friend and partisan comrade Davorin. The story is set on a small island in Dalmatia, the place where Niko has sought refuge with his now half-demented mother.
Niko has problems with leaving his old happy-go-lucky way of life behind and must pay for it with his life when his girlfriend turns out to be Italian collaborator and they are both condemned to death by the communist party. It is never really clarified however if she really was a collaborator or just using the enamored Italian soldiers to get food for partisans. Here the movie first shows that its far from a propaganda movie as the harsh nature of the communist party condemns her to death and Niko with her for refusing to leave her. Davorin executes them with heavy heart and then falls into the same trap as Niko when he falls for the daughter of the town's and island's richest man, played by beautiful Ena Begovic, then just 20 and in her first film role.
The film shows how the occupants and tormentors of the local people change from Italians to Germans and Croatian Ustashas (fascists) and then finally to Chetniks including a bloodthirsty and grotesque trio of two Circassians and one Hungarian who meet them on their way at the island. This film is important because it explored all the evils of that war, firstly those of the occupants and fascists but also in a way the hidden evil that could sometimes occur amongst partisans themselves. In the end, Davorin's younger brother Lovre is sent as a commissar to pass judgment on Davorin and he condemns his brother to death on behalf of the party for setting a group of chetniks he had captured free. Davorin's goodness prevails here as the chetniks look pitiful and war-weary but soon thereafter reveal their true nature. Once again, with heavy heart, just like Davorin when he executed Niko in the beginning, Lovre must do his duty. Its a tragic film to say the least.
Besides the aforementioned actors, Miodrag Krivokapic appears as Davorin's ill-fated brother and fellow partisan Andrija, Mirjana Karanovic plays Andrija's wife and Bata Zivojinovic plays the father of Ena Begovic, the island's rich man. This is not the best part of the trilogy, but still a pivotal work.
