Two soldiers, one landmine, zero bullets left—who steps off first?
Croatia, 1993. Two marksmen—Robert, a Croat, and Stojan, a Serb—wander aimlessly through the desolate countryside. When their paths unexpectedly cross, the enemies immediately try to shoot each other. The first "click," however, is not coming from a gun barrel, but from the ground beneath them: the enemies stepped on a landmine at the same time. One foot in the grave, they are involuntarily bound together by common destiny—the death of one means the death of the other. But not just their apparent differences make it difficult for them to overcome their dilemma. Nature, too, offers some challenges to test the soldiers' solidarity and survival skills.
Acting
Erceg and Ljubek speak volumes without dialogue
Direction
Nedimovic stretches 25 minutes into eternity
Cinematography
Bleached Croatian landscape as third character
Director
Mickey Nedimovic
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during ongoing post-Yugoslav reconciliation, the film deliberately avoids identifying which soldier is which nationality until late—forcing viewers to confront their own assumptions.
Erceg and Ljubek spent two days actually standing in position to build authentic physical exhaustion; the shaking in the final scenes is real muscle failure.
HR
