IS IT CLEAR, MY FRIEND?
JE LI JASNO, PRIJATELJU?




Croatia, 2000, 99 min, color

A friend's harrowing tale inspired actor Dejan Acimovic to make his debut as an author. In 1981, on the day Martin Pavlovic turned twenty-nine, he committed a murder and was sentenced to twelve years in prison. He found himself in one of the most dangerous lockups in the former Yugoslavia. Those who ended up there and an it really was the end for many, regardless of the seriousness of their offence - became just more bodies among tortured multitudes. Only political prisoners had it worse. Martin had suspected for a long time that events on that fateful night had actually happened differently. But only after he'd long been in prison did he find out the truth. He was to have been the victim that night in the Casablanca bar. The defense lawyer assigned to him did nothing. Who cares about a witness to lawlessness and corruption in the penal and judicial systems? Years went by and Martin and a fellow prisoner succeeded in provoking a riot. While the government had promised them protection both paid for it with their lives.

"A hard-driving yarn about prison life in the '80s, just before the end of communism and breakup of Yugoslavia, "Is It Clear, My Friend?" sidesteps political comment in favor of human drama under extreme conditions. Paced for action by talented newcomer Dejan Acimovic, who casts himself as the most sadistic guard, the grim, rather macho tale has its quota of violence, yet is concerned mostly with showing how prisoners lose their personality under inhuman conditions. Sensitively shot pic does not draw the obvious parallel between Tito's forcibly unified Yugoslavia and the way prison erases differences between inmates."