Nije kraj (2008)

The story is narrated by Đuro, a Croatian Roma man. Martin, a young war veteran, has bought a DVD of a pornographic film at a market. It stars Desa, a Serbian actress, as Little Red Riding Hood, and Đuro as the wolf. Martin tracks down Đuro to get him to take him to Desa. They travel together to Belgrade, where they learn that Desa works as a prostitute for a pimp. Martin buys her freedom from the pimp for €35,000, which he earns by selling maps, and takes her to Croatia. At first, Desa is convinced that Martin is now her new pimp. But he treats her like a woman, cooking for her and even buying her flowers for her birthday. His behavior confuses her, but he refuses to tell her why he treats her this way. Eventually, they fall in love and spend several passionate nights together. A series of flashbacks then reveals why Martin bought Desa’s freedom. It turns out that Martin feels guilty because, during the civil war, he was a sniper assigned to watch her house. He had been ordered to kill her husband, a high-ranking Serbian officer, whom he eventually shot, but he could not bring himself to shoot Desa. Meanwhile, it also comes to light what kind of maps Martin was selling to earn the money to buy Desa’s freedom: he sold bereaved families maps showing the graves where soldiers killed in the war were buried. But he had stolen the maps from his former commander, who eventually learns why no one wants to buy his maps and wants revenge on Martin. Finally, the real reason Martin decided to seek out Desa now is revealed. Martin is suffering from an incurable, terminal illness and has only a few months left to live; he wants to leave everything to Desa. But this angers Desa, because she does not want to go through the loss of someone close to her again, and she leaves Martin. The story ends with Đuro meeting Martin and inviting him to his celebration, where Martin meets Desa again. They leave the celebration together, and the film leaves the story open-ended, without a resolution.