My beloved and I were among some six-hundred invitees to the opening of the Zagreb Film Festival yesterday evening. The film on offer was a Serbian and Croatian coproduction by Vuk Ršumović, a Serbian film director. “Nobody’s Child” (2014) was awarded as the best film by the audience at this year’s Venice Film Festival. It is about a boy of about eight discovered in the Bosnian woods in 1988. Living with wolves, the child was completely wild. Nothing was known of his origin. The boy was sent to an institution for abandoned children in Belgrade, then the capital of Yugoslavia. There, he learns to speak, as well as to read and write. At the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Bosnian authorities want him back. He returns there just as the war starts in earnest. It is winter. He is picked up by a group of Bosnian fighters and taught to shoot, which he does on at least one occasion. But he manages to escape the tumult and returns to the woods. Around twelve now, he is happy for the first time since the beginning of the film. One sees him rolling downhill in the snow. The film ends before he reunites with the wolves. “I am surprised,” I told my beloved as we were leaving the place last night after a brief introduction to the film director and his crew, “but the film is just to my taste.” Coming from Bosnia, she was a bit less enthusiastic. The film tells it all, though, and from the wild boy’s perspective, which is refreshing. It is better among the wolves than among the humans. And by a wide margin. Period. By the way, the film director’s first name means “wolf” in both Serbian and Croatian.

Addendum (November 13, 2016)

Whenever an opportunity arises, I mention Ršumović’s film with a big grin on my face. I explain the circumstances under which I have seen it together with my beloved. To the best of my ability, I tell what the film is about. Time and again, I do not beat around the bush when it comes to my enchantment with wolves. And I always end up by pointing out that I would not change a single scene in the entire film. That sums up my praise in no uncertain terms. The film is just faultless, that is. To my surprise, few people have anything to say about any of this. Most of them have never even heard of the film, let alone seen it already. But they do not express any wish to see it when they get a chance. At best, they are glad that I liked the film, and that it that. By and by, I am getting a feeling that my praise is as good as the worst possible criticism. Actually, condemnation. Dear director Ršumović, my deepest apologies!