AllMovie

This historical drama is about the turbulence in Yugoslavia between 1946 and 1956 when Tito instituted his own version of socialism, thereby alienating both East and West. The political climate and divisions at that time are reflected in actual documentary footage within the narrative itself. The story is about the installation of a high-voltage generator and what happens when people unite to work for their own common cause (either a generator or national autonomy) - if only people could agree on what the common cause is. A young dissident is arrested, imprisoned, escapes, and is shot by a border guard. A woman who supports Tito speaks up for him at the factory where the generator will be installed, and later manages to smuggle the plans for the generator into Yugoslavia. Another white-collar worker opts for residing in Austria where all these troubles do not exist. In these images of a nation at odds with itself and the world, a vague foreboding is bound to affect viewers who know that civil war in the 1990s would destroy whatever fragile unity was promoted by this film.