The Repatriate

After the war, Croatian soldier GUNNER (30) returns to a desolate apartment in Lika, his former
home. He is met with a foul stench and swarms of flies — a grim reminder of what the space
once was. Twenty years later, KOVAČEVIĆ (40), a Serbian repatriate, arrives at the same building, now a hollow replacement for his burned house. The apartment is damp and flooded. TONA (58), a plumber, arrives for an emergency repair and reveals the apartment’s
dark history: during the occupation, a Serb soldier broke into the abandoned flat above with his large family. Due to the extreme cold and broken pipes, they dug a hole and defecated
through it, filling what is now Kovačević's apartment with feces for five long years. As Tona recounts this horror, he also tells the story of the former tenant, Gunner. A heavy atmosphere lingers as the two men sit in silence, the shared trauma and oppressive history of the
apartment weighing on them.