Go West

In the 1990s the Yugoslavia Federation falls apart in bloody wars. Perpetual student Milan, a Serb from a patriarchal community, and Kenan, a Muslim cellist, are a homosexual couple living in Sarajevo. Their lives, intimate and public, are shaken up by the aggression in Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose devastating consequences unfold in inter-ethnic hatred. Trapped in Sarajevo during the siege of the Serb forces, the lovers manage to flee to Milan’s home village and take shelter there, waiting for Milan’s father Ljubo to find a way to the Netherlands. Witnessing the brutality of Serb forces and their hatred towards Muslims, Milan desperately improvises: he disguises Kenan as a woman and present him as his wife Milena, a secret discovered by Milan’s best friend, Lunja. Milan is drafted into the army and the situation becomes almost unbearable for Kenan. His one companion is Ranka, a waitress in a local café, whose dark secrets terrify most of the villagers around her.