# Pretty Village, Pretty Flame
**Pretty Village, Pretty Flame** (*Lepa sela lepo gore*) is a 1996 Serbian war drama directed by Srđan Dragojević, about a group of Bosnian Serb soldiers trapped in an abandoned tunnel by a Bosnian Muslim force during the opening stages of the [Bosnian War](https://www.edgepedia.org/bosnian-war). The film is based on a story written from eyewitness testimony by journalist Vanja Bulić, and it was the first film produced in Belgrade in which war crimes are also committed by Serbians.[1](https://www.fcs.rs/en/movies/lepa-sela-lepo-gore/) • [2](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1997/films/lepa-sela-lepo-gore) It was Serbia's candidate for the Academy Award for best foreign-language film for 1996.[3](https://www.rts.rs/lat/rts/rts-predstavlja/filmski-program/filmovi/2354792/lepa-sela-lepo-gore-.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *Lepa sela lepo gore*; English title Pretty Village, Pretty Flame[1](https://www.fcs.rs/en/movies/lepa-sela-lepo-gore/) |
| Director and year | Srđan Dragojević, 1996; his second feature film[1](https://www.fcs.rs/en/movies/lepa-sela-lepo-gore/) • [4](https://www.premiersplans.org/en/film/lepa-sela-lepo-gore) |
| Basis | A true incident in which seven soldiers of the Drina Corps were surrounded for nine days in the Brodar tunnel in September 1992; the screenplay is by Nikola Pejaković and Dragojević from a story by Vanja Bulić[3](https://www.rts.rs/lat/rts/rts-predstavlja/filmski-program/filmovi/2354792/lepa-sela-lepo-gore-.html) • [1](https://www.fcs.rs/en/movies/lepa-sela-lepo-gore/) |
| Production | Cobra Film, Belgrade, with RTV Serbia as co-producer; supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia[1](https://www.fcs.rs/en/movies/lepa-sela-lepo-gore/) |
| Principal cast | Dragan Bjelogrlić (Milan), Nikola Kojo (Velja), Dragan Maksimović (Petar), Zoran Cvijanović (Brzi), Milorad Mandić (Viljuška), Lisa Moncure (Liza), Velimir "Bata" Živojinović (Gvozden), Nikola Pejaković (Halil)[1](https://www.fcs.rs/en/movies/lepa-sela-lepo-gore/) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pretty_village_pretty_flame/cast-and-crew) |
| Awards | European Jury Award at Angers (1997), Grand Prix Bronze Horse at Stockholm, Grand Prix at São Paulo, Golden Knight for Best Film at Moscow, Audience Award at Thessaloniki, Best Foreign Film at Fort Lauderdale[6](https://www.film-center.si/media/cms/attachments/2025/08/13/SFC_katalog_2020_FD.pdf) |
| Oscar candidacy | Serbian entry for the best foreign-language film Oscar for 1996[3](https://www.rts.rs/lat/rts/rts-predstavlja/filmski-program/filmovi/2354792/lepa-sela-lepo-gore-.html) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and structure
The film opens in a Belgrade army hospital, where casualties of the war in Bosnia are treated. The badly wounded Milan, a Serb, remembers the ordeal his platoon went through when it was blocked in an abandoned tunnel amid the chaos of the war, and alongside the images of massacre he recalls nostalgic memories of his childhood friend Halil, a Muslim.[7](https://www.fcs.rs/filmovi/lepa-sela-lepo-gore/) The two boys grew up together in a village near the deserted tunnel, which links Belgrade and Zagreb, and as children they never dared enter it because they believed an ogre, in Serbian folklore a *drekavac*, lived inside.[8](https://domaci.film/Film.aspx?id=1019) • [3](https://www.rts.rs/lat/rts/rts-predstavlja/filmski-program/filmovi/2354792/lepa-sela-lepo-gore-.html)
Twelve years after their childhood, during the war in Bosnia, Milan is trapped in the tunnel with his comrades and Halil stands on the opposite side, so that the two friends meet again at the cursed tunnel on opposing sides, their oath of eternal friendship broken and muddied by the war.[3](https://www.rts.rs/lat/rts/rts-predstavlja/filmski-program/filmovi/2354792/lepa-sela-lepo-gore-.html) • [7](https://www.fcs.rs/filmovi/lepa-sela-lepo-gore/) Among the exhausted Serb fighters is a lost American journalist.[8](https://domaci.film/Film.aspx?id=1019) The film's time frame swings between 1980 and 1992: in the last days of Tito, in the early 1980s, the two friends watch the construction of the "Peace Tunnel", officially named [Brotherhood](https://www.edgepedia.org/brotherhood) and Unity, which decades earlier had been pompously opened by a high communist official of Tito's era.[2](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1997/films/lepa-sela-lepo-gore) • [9](https://entertainment.ie/movies/where-to-watch/pretty-village-pretty-flame-56029/) • [10](https://www.ipsnews.net/1996/11/yugoslavia-film-pretty-village-pretty-flame/) Using flashbacks that recount the lives the besieged soldiers led before the war, the film portrays life in the former [Yugoslavia](https://www.edgepedia.org/yugoslavia) and attempts to offer an explanation of why onetime friends and neighbors came to fight one another.[1](https://www.fcs.rs/en/movies/lepa-sela-lepo-gore/)
The [Rotterdam](https://www.edgepedia.org/rotterdam) festival program notes that the director switches almost imperceptibly between periods, and that the film sometimes changes tone in just a few seconds, from brutal violence to lyricism or irony.[2](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1997/films/lepa-sela-lepo-gore) The trade paper Variety called it "wilder in its black humour than MASH, bolder in its vision of politics and the military than any movie Stanley Kubrick has made", and "one of the most audacious antiwar statements ever committed to the big screen".[2](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1997/films/lepa-sela-lepo-gore)
## The true story and the sources
The central incident is based on an eyewitness account of a platoon trapped in a tunnel during the first war winter in Bosnia in 1992.[7](https://www.fcs.rs/filmovi/lepa-sela-lepo-gore/) • [2](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1997/films/lepa-sela-lepo-gore) The sources describe the underlying event differently. Radio Television of Serbia states that seven soldiers of the Drina Corps were surrounded for nine days in the Brodar tunnel in September 1992,[3](https://www.rts.rs/lat/rts/rts-predstavlja/filmski-program/filmovi/2354792/lepa-sela-lepo-gore-.html) while the International Film Festival Rotterdam program describes an eyewitness account of a platoon stuck in a tunnel for ten days in the winter of 1992.[2](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1997/films/lepa-sela-lepo-gore) The AFI Fest guide describes the incident as a group of men who took refuge in a tunnel, blocked both exits, conversed with the men outside, and escaped one night after ten days without extra rations of food or water.[11](https://fest.afi.com/1996/yugoslavia-1996/pretty-village-pretty-flame-lepa-sela-lepa-gore-2/)
## Production
Dragojević, born in 1963, holds a degree in clinical psychology (1987) and graduated in production at the [University of Belgrade](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-belgrade) in 1992; his graduation film *We Are Not Angels* (1992) was successful across the former Yugoslavia, and *Pretty Village, Pretty Flame* is his second feature.[4](https://www.premiersplans.org/en/film/lepa-sela-lepo-gore) The film was produced by Cobra Film of Belgrade with RTV Serbia as co-producer, with Dragan Bjelogrlić, Nikola Kojo, Goran Bjelogrlić, and Milko Josifov as producers, Dušan Joksimović as cinematographer, and Petar Marković as editor.[1](https://www.fcs.rs/en/movies/lepa-sela-lepo-gore/) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pretty_village_pretty_flame/cast-and-crew)
Shooting took place while the war was still running. The Rotterdam program states that the Platoon-like war report was shot in the war zone, in the tunnel itself, and that hostilities ended while the film was being made.[2](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1997/films/lepa-sela-lepo-gore) Dragojević later told Cinepur magazine: "It was tough – making a film about war during a war is pretty insane."[12](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/17/5069-pretty-village-pretty-flame) A 41-minute making-of documentary, *Film o filmu: Lepa sela lepo gore*, directed by Ivan Živković, was produced by Cobra Film in 1996.[13](https://www.fcs.rs/filmovi/film-o-filmu-lepa-sela-lepo-gore/)
## Reception and controversy
The film's reception was divided from the start. Part of the audience and critics saw it as an antiwar work, while others argued it was a politically problematic, even "fascist", portrayal of the war; the actor Dragan Bjelogrlić later said the film was "stretched" between these interpretations and could not simply be placed in one ideological category.[14](https://www.danas.rs/kultura/kako-se-snimao-film-lepa-sela-lepo-gore-od-osporavanja-do-divljenja-u-svetu/) In the Los Angeles Times, Dragojević called the film a "social phenomenon" that provides a form of psychotherapy and catharsis for Serbian audiences, who had received mostly sanitized versions of events in Bosnia from the official news media; Bjelogrlić, who plays Milan, described the production as "brave" for taking on conventional wisdom among Serbs, who were not accustomed to unflattering self-portraits by their own filmmakers.[15](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-10-29-ca-58832-story.html) A 1997 Los Angeles Times review noted that, given its willingness to show Serb transgressions, the film's reception illustrates the barriers a war at home can create.[16](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-oct-05-ca-39385-story.html)
**Commercial reach.** *Lepa sela lepo gore* was the biggest-grossing Serbian film in Belgrade at the time and the first Serbian film to enjoy success in neighboring Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, and Macedonia after the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991.[17](https://www.kinoeye.org/03/10/celluloidtinderbox.pdf) In Slovenia it ran in regular distribution with strong attendance, visitors came from Croatia to see it in [Ljubljana](https://www.edgepedia.org/ljubljana), it drew tens of thousands of viewers in Greece, and it ranked among the most-watched non-English-language films in Brazil and Australia.[14](https://www.danas.rs/kultura/kako-se-snimao-film-lepa-sela-lepo-gore-od-osporavanja-do-divljenja-u-svetu/) The British magazine [Sight and Sound](https://www.edgepedia.org/sight-and-sound) placed it among the 30 best war films in the world.[8](https://domaci.film/Film.aspx?id=1019)
## Awards and legacy
The film won the European Jury Award for feature film at the Angers European First Film Festival in 1997, shared with *Orphans* (1997) and *Bolse vita* (1996), and also took the Telcipro Award there.[18](https://www.imdb.com/es/title/tt0116860/awards/) Its festival record also includes the Grand Prix Bronze Horse at Stockholm, the Grand Prix at São Paulo, the Golden Knight for Best Film at Moscow, the Audience Award at [Thessaloniki](https://www.edgepedia.org/thessaloniki), Best Foreign Film at Fort Lauderdale, and the Jury Grand Prize at Angers.[6](https://www.film-center.si/media/cms/attachments/2025/08/13/SFC_katalog_2020_FD.pdf) At the [Karlovy Vary](https://www.edgepedia.org/karlovy-vary) festival's 2009 retrospective, the film was described as making use of authentic shots and even cruel humor to evoke the horrors of war.[12](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/17/5069-pretty-village-pretty-flame)
The film carries a dedication to "the cinematography of a country that no longer exists", a reference scholars have read as an in memoriam to the vanished Yugoslav cinema.[19](https://fdu.bg.ac.rs/uploads/files/Institut/ezbornik/Zbornik%2021/Nevena%20Dakovi%C4%87_CINEMA%20KOMUNISTO%20I%20POST-KOMUNISTO%20-%20%20FILMSKI%20TEKST%20PAM%C4%86ENJA%2C%20SE%C4%86ANJA%20I%20NOSTALGIJE.pdf) The film scholar Nevena Daković of the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Dramatic Arts analyzes this dedication as part of the film's work of memory for the dissolved state.[19](https://fdu.bg.ac.rs/uploads/files/Institut/ezbornik/Zbornik%2021/Nevena%20Dakovi%C4%87_CINEMA%20KOMUNISTO%20I%20POST-KOMUNISTO%20-%20%20FILMSKI%20TEKST%20PAM%C4%86ENJA%2C%20SE%C4%86ANJA%20I%20NOSTALGIJE.pdf) Three decades after its release, the film still occupies a special and paradoxical place in Serbian and regional cinema, discussed both as an artistic work and as a political phenomenon that started debates that continue today.[14](https://www.danas.rs/kultura/kako-se-snimao-film-lepa-sela-lepo-gore-od-osporavanja-do-divljenja-u-svetu/)
## References
1. [Pretty Village Pretty Flame, Film Center Serbia](https://www.fcs.rs/en/movies/lepa-sela-lepo-gore/)
2. [Lepa sela lepo gore, International Film Festival Rotterdam 1997](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1997/films/lepa-sela-lepo-gore)
3. [Lepa sela, lepo gore, Radio Television of Serbia](https://www.rts.rs/lat/rts/rts-predstavlja/filmski-program/filmovi/2354792/lepa-sela-lepo-gore-.html)
4. [Lepa Sela, Lepo Gore, Festival Premiers Plans d'Angers](https://www.premiersplans.org/en/film/lepa-sela-lepo-gore)
5. [Pretty Village, Pretty Flame, Cast and Crew, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pretty_village_pretty_flame/cast-and-crew)
6. [Srdjan Dragojević filmography, Slovenian Film Center catalog](https://www.film-center.si/media/cms/attachments/2025/08/13/SFC_katalog_2020_FD.pdf)
7. [Lepa sela lepo gore, Film Center Serbia (Serbian)](https://www.fcs.rs/filmovi/lepa-sela-lepo-gore/)
8. [Lepa sela lepo gore, Domaći Film database](https://domaci.film/Film.aspx?id=1019)
9. [Pretty Village, Pretty Flame, Entertainment.ie](https://entertainment.ie/movies/where-to-watch/pretty-village-pretty-flame-56029/)
10. [Yugoslavia-Film: "Pretty Village, Pretty Flame", Inter Press Service, 1996](https://www.ipsnews.net/1996/11/yugoslavia-film-pretty-village-pretty-flame/)
11. [Pretty Village, Pretty Flame, AFI Fest 1996](https://fest.afi.com/1996/yugoslavia-1996/pretty-village-pretty-flame-lepa-sela-lepa-gore-2/)
12. [Pretty Village Pretty Flame, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/17/5069-pretty-village-pretty-flame)
13. [Film o filmu: Lepa sela lepo gore, Film Center Serbia](https://www.fcs.rs/filmovi/film-o-filmu-lepa-sela-lepo-gore/)
14. [Kako se snimao film „Lepa sela lepo gore": Od osporavanja do divljenja u svetu, Danas](https://www.danas.rs/kultura/kako-se-snimao-film-lepa-sela-lepo-gore-od-osporavanja-do-divljenja-u-svetu/)
15. [Putting a 'Flame' to Serbia's Soul, Los Angeles Times, 1996](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-10-29-ca-58832-story.html)
16. [Scenes of Despair From the Inside, Los Angeles Times, 1997](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-oct-05-ca-39385-story.html)
17. [The Celluloid Tinderbox, Kinoeye](https://www.kinoeye.org/03/10/celluloidtinderbox.pdf)
18. [Lepa sela lepo gore, Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/es/title/tt0116860/awards/)
19. [Nevena Daković, Cinema Kommunisto i post-kommunisto, University of Belgrade Faculty of Dramatic Arts](https://fdu.bg.ac.rs/uploads/files/Institut/ezbornik/Zbornik%2021/Nevena%20Dakovi%C4%87_CINEMA%20KOMUNISTO%20I%20POST-KOMUNISTO%20-%20%20FILMSKI%20TEKST%20PAM%C4%86ENJA%2C%20SE%C4%86ANJA%20I%20NOSTALGIJE.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › War and historical films (individual works) › War action and adventure › War action films released through 1999 › Released 1963 to 1998*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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