The Promising Boy (1981)

The Promising Boy (Serbo-Croatian: Dečko koji obećava) is a 1981 Yugoslav youth genre film. Strongly influenced by the emerging new wave movement that seemingly challenged many of the established social norms in communist Yugoslavia, the movie tells the story of a young man who goes from being a good son to rebellious misfit and back again.

It also served as the showcase of sorts for various bands of Yugoslav new wave and punk music scenes.

Synopsis

Twenty-four-year-old Slobodan Milošević (Aleksandar Berček) seemingly has the world by the tail. Growing up during the early 1980s in an upscale part of Belgrade as the only child in a well-off and respected nomenklatura family (father is a Yugoslav People's Army officer, mother a university professor), he's an exemplary young man in his own right. Studying at the Faculty of Medicine while dating beautiful, smart, and similarly upwardly mobile Maša (Dara Džokić), the daughter of an influential communist Serbian politician father (Bata Živojinović) and a free-spirited Slovenian mother (Milena Zupančič), Slobodan's an attentive boyfriend and a considerate son.

Actors