A cinematic story of drama after the drama and war that rages on in people's hearts even after the war. The hero, an Orthodox Christian monk, finds himself on a road to spiritual healing through circumstances he could never have dreamed of. The story follows the path to spiritual uplifting, metaphorically introduced at the very beginning in the hero's walk to the secluded hermitage. The leitmotif of watering a dry, dead tree, repeated throughout the film, illustrates the absurdity of the monk's faith. The permanent paralysis of the characters after the torment of war invokes forgiveness as the only means to ultimate healing.
Cinematography
The hermitage walk — every frame breathes desolation.
Direction
Jović makes paralysis feel like spiritual weight.
Acting
Maksić's monk — faith so quiet it screams.
Director
Ivan Jović
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Serbian cinema's post-Yugoslav religious renaissance often uses Orthodox monasticism to process collective war trauma. This film's rural mill setting evokes centuries of Balkan isolation as both sanctuary and prison.
The dead tree watering isn't absurdist comedy — it's lifted from actual monastic practice of 'adoring the unworthy,' here weaponized to question whether faith itself becomes violence when it ignores reality.
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