Goodbye Beautiful
Miša (90) was filmed throughout his entire life. Once a Partisan currier and a famous child actor, he starred in dozen of movies and later became a director of the Yugoslav State TV, where he kept an active social life in company of some of the most influential persons of the socialist Yugoslavia. Today, mostly forgotten, he lives a slow-passing elderly life with his wife and with no children, spending most of their time tending to their health issues.
During one of his regular health check-ups, he hears the news about a Memorial Complex dedicated to WWII children fighters, named after his good friend, Yugoslav child war hero, Boško Buha. Although formally protected as a cultural heritage, the Memorial is under threat of being sold and privatized due to years of negligence. But Miša has one last chance to save his friends' legacy.
Since most of his comrades are dead, Miša seeks help from Zdenko, a 91-year-old retired Yugoslav Army aviation colonel, one of the last living Partisans who can still walk. Zdenko was a Partisan child fighter, who continued with a military carrier, becoming an advisor to a large number of liberation movements during the 1960s in Africa, Syria and Palestine, only to retire as the main person in charge of the Yugoslav Army weapon trade deals. Today he maintains a very active social life related to different Veteran groups and their activities.
Miša and Zdenko team up in an old-fashioned way with an effort to form a bigger group in order to prevent further deterioration of the Memorial Complex and to restore its heritage and activities. During this struggle, they face absurd daily challenges and inertia of public institutions in a society deeply oblivious to its socialist past, values and heroes.
In the world facing threats similar to those of the past, this adventurous journey of the last living Partisans brings valuable insights into philosophy of life, death and anti–fascist legacy.
During one of his regular health check-ups, he hears the news about a Memorial Complex dedicated to WWII children fighters, named after his good friend, Yugoslav child war hero, Boško Buha. Although formally protected as a cultural heritage, the Memorial is under threat of being sold and privatized due to years of negligence. But Miša has one last chance to save his friends' legacy.
Since most of his comrades are dead, Miša seeks help from Zdenko, a 91-year-old retired Yugoslav Army aviation colonel, one of the last living Partisans who can still walk. Zdenko was a Partisan child fighter, who continued with a military carrier, becoming an advisor to a large number of liberation movements during the 1960s in Africa, Syria and Palestine, only to retire as the main person in charge of the Yugoslav Army weapon trade deals. Today he maintains a very active social life related to different Veteran groups and their activities.
Miša and Zdenko team up in an old-fashioned way with an effort to form a bigger group in order to prevent further deterioration of the Memorial Complex and to restore its heritage and activities. During this struggle, they face absurd daily challenges and inertia of public institutions in a society deeply oblivious to its socialist past, values and heroes.
In the world facing threats similar to those of the past, this adventurous journey of the last living Partisans brings valuable insights into philosophy of life, death and anti–fascist legacy.