Nobody warns you that going home means becoming who you were.
Thirty-five old Nikola comes back home after he had left a year ago, in a quarrel. His father Vlado and mother Anica came to Germany when they were young, looking for happiness.
Acting
Nadarević's Vlado — gruff, broken, never asks for sympathy and gets it anyway.
Writing
Every argument stops mid-sentence. The screenplay trusts you to fill the wounds.
Director
Damir Lukacevic
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Croatian 'guest worker' cinema rarely crossed borders; Lukacevic captures the specific ache of Yugoslav diaspora families who built Germany while Germany never quite built them back.
The film's German title 'Heimkehr' implies heroic return — the Croatian 'Povratak' just means 'going back.' The gap between those words is the whole movie.
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