The Red Colored Grey Truck

A story about the last day of peace in 1991 in the former Yugoslavia; a story in which love works miracles and colors mean nothing.

In it, two completely different characters find a way to overcome all their differences, to cover the miles that separate their hometowns, their childhood friends, their views on life and happiness. To make it all the more absurd, the story unfolds at the very moment of the total breakup of a country made up of very similar peoples – for reasons that are not entirely clear, as the film itself shows.

The main characters of this charming story are Ratko, an unlicensed truck driver from some Bosnian backwater (played by Srđan – Žika Todorović) and Suzana from Belgrade (played by the young Slovenian actress Aleksandra Balmazović). Ratko is color-blind, which, by his own account, gives him an entirely different view of the world (this also explains the film’s title). Suzana is a Belgrade snob who always takes the easy way out in life. They meet at the very start of a long journey, each setting out with a wish to escape, but for very different reasons.

Along the way we realize that these two oddballs are the only normal people in a country gripped by utter madness. The two of them manage to get past every obstacle and barricade on their trip through various war-torn parts of the country. On the road they meet an unusual priest (Bogdan Diklić), a Serbian Quasimodo (Boris Milivojević), a genuine paramilitary chief from southern Bosnia (Milorad Mandić), a local squire (Dragan Bjelogrlić), a peasant who smuggles the dead (Dubravko Jovanović), and many, many others.

The film won the German National Film Award for Best Film of 2004 and the Audience Award at the 26th Montpellier Film Festival in 2004.