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Screenwriter Mirko Kovac adapted his novel about the self-aggrandizing Tomislav (Rade Serbedzija. Starting with Tomislav's childhood, when he plays practical jokes on the nuns at his elite school, or spies on his brother and his wife in their bedroom, he is already offensive and secretive. These traits continue when he grows up and starts an affair with his brother's wife, and marries someone else in spite of that affair. He ends up tormenting the woman he marries through a misunderstanding, though he survives World War II thanks to her efforts. After the war he goes into politics and continues in much the same vein as in his private life.