A lighthouse keeper lives on an isolated island together with his wife, ailing father and retarded sister. News of a serial killer stalking the isolated lighthouses makes him leave in order to hunt him down. In the meantime, the wife meets a mysterious and seductive stranger. On an isolated island there is a lighthouse. Besides the lighthouse keeper there is his wife, his ageing father and his sister who has learning difficulties. They hear about a killer who is targeting lighthouses. The lighthouse keeper decides to go off and look for the killer. Back at the lighthouse a stranger turns up. Lordan Zafranovic (born 11 February 1944 in Maslinica on the island of Solta), is an acclaimed Croatian film director. After receiving a degree in literature and visual arts at the University of Split, Zafranovic enrolled at the famous FAMU in Prague where he studied film directing and where he eventually graduated in 1981. He is therefore considered part of the so-called Prague School, a group of acclaimed Yugoslav directors of the 60's and 70's who all studied there (the others being Goran Paskaljevic and Rajko Grlic). His first films made in the early 1960s were mostly experimental shorts with grotesque and absurdist influences. His first notable efforts and films that marked the beginning of his regular feature filmmaking were Chronicle of a Crime (1973) and Passion According to Matthew (1975), the latter earning him the critics' award at the Pula Film Festival. His most important work, the first part of his WWII trilogy, Occupation in 26 Pictures (1978) followed. This drama following a story of three young men's friendship set in World War II Dubrovnik went on to win the Big Golden Arena for Best Picture at Pula Film Festival and was a huge box office hit in Yugoslavia. The other two parts of his WWII trilogy were The Fall of Italy (1981) and Evening Bells (1986). In the mid 1980's he turned to more intimate love themes, with films such as An Angel's Bite (1984) and Aloa: Festivity of the Whores (1988). In the meantime he also directed numerous tv productions for Radio Television Belgrade and Radio Television Zagreb. During the political turmoil in the early 1990s he moved to Prague and slowly sinked into obscurity. In his later years he produced a documentary feature called The Decline of the Century: Testament L.Z. (1994), and a film in Czech called Revenge (1995).

Three young men - a Croat, an Italian, and a Jew - are the best friends in pre-WW2 Dubrovnik. When their country is occupied by Nazis and their cronies, the idyllic city becomes a place of terror and gruesome massacres. The friends must now take different sides in a global conflict. A great work of Lordan Zafranovic! The plot is situated in Dubrovnik and I get the impression that Zafranovic wanted to show how nice, beautiful and nonchalant life was before the war by making it to look like it is in renaissance. Three friends (a Croat, an Italian and a Jew) are having the time of their lives, singing, laughing, and having fun and girls. Then the war breaks and their friendship is eclipsed by their nationalities and religions. Instead of songs and laugh there are scenes of violence and killings. And the way in which Zafranovic has shown all that hatred between Croats and Serbs, Nazis and Jews is superb and frightening at the same time. I must mention one more scene that amazed me. It is the scene of striptease in the whorehouse. Maybe that's because of Tanja Boskovic, who is, in my humble opinion, the sexiest Serbian actress ever, but the camera work with cruising along the room and shooting it all at once with sliding back and out of the room with Tanja naked and the statue in front in the same pose is magnificent.