Sokol Did Not Love Him

The year is 1943 and the place is Ladimirevci, a village in Slavonia. Sima is a landowner. His son Beneš has been enlisted into the German army. The father wants to get him off that side. To do it he works both ways at once, with the Partisans and with the Ustaša administration. What he is after is saving his son. He does not want to hand him to the Partisans either. So he hides him in the attic. There is a stallion in the yard as well, named Sokol. Sokol takes orders only from Beneš, and Sima can do nothing with him. The story comes from a play by Fabijan Šovagović, who played Sima on stage and again in the film. His son Filip Šovagović plays Beneš, in his first film role. The hundred and two minute film was Branko Schmidt’s first feature, a Yugoslav production finished in 1988.