AllMovie

First-time feature filmmaker Kristijan Milic teams with writer Josip Mlakic for this screen adaptation of Mlakic's popular novel following two tales of 20th century bloodshed in Bosnia. Alternating between warfare in 1943 and 1993, Milic and Mlakic's dark war drama highlights the haunting sameness of both battles by following a squadron of HVO (Bosnian Croat) soldiers as they walk the same path and face the same treachery that their Domobran (defenders of the Croat Independent State) forefathers did just 50 years prior. Chief among the HVO team is sympathetic soldier Tomo -- whose grandfather was the last surviving Domobran Martin. By the time soldiers in both eras make their way to the haunted cemetery, the stories converge to highlight the hopeless cycle of strife that seems poised to repeat itself ad infinitum.