War Tale

In wartime Sarajevo, the organised criminals have mobilised the children in an almost Dickensian fashion to loot all they can from the city's ruins in return for some rudimentary board and lodgings in a bombed out building. "Vanja" (Klement Tomic) isn't very good at this thieving lark and is being threatened with deportation to somewhere even more perilous if he doesn't up his game. His older friend "Lara" (Jasna Gavranovic) tries to keep an eye on him, but she's an independent operator and so has to look after herself as government soldiers patrol what's left of the city. This is quite a well constructed feature that provides us with an insight into how the dispossessed lived amidst a thuggish and lawless society where human life was held as tradeable at best, fairly worthless at worst. The young Tomic portrays his character with a touching vulnerability, especially as the plot takes him into even more unknown territory and the overall sense of hoplessness and fear is well captured here for twenty minutes.