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"A Wonderful Night in Split"
is a realistic, gritty drama with some
surrealistic elements, set in a ghetto of
the Croatian medieval city of Split. The
whole story of the film takes place in only
two hours - from 10 in the evening until
midnight, on New Year's Eve.
There are three separate stories in this
drama, which share the same space, time and
certain characters. These three stories
proceed one after the other; each one begins
at 10 PM and ends at midnight, at the
beginning of the New Year's festivities.
Throughout the film there is New Year's rock
concert by a real-life well-known rock star
held in the center of the Ghetto, on an old
Roman Square. The film opens at the end, in
midnight, with the fireworks display. The
rock concert is interrupted due to a tragic
event, and to find out what had happened, we
go back in time and we start with the first
story.
In this first story we follow a petty drug
dealer called Nike who makes love to Maria,
a widow of a soldier and a mother of a
traumatized 9-year old kid. Although Maria
insists on Nike staying with her for New
Year, he unexpectedly admits that he
immediately needs to go by bus to Munich and
that he will not come back. Nike leaves
Maria in tears and heads straight to Blacky,
the main drug dealer. In a seedy pub Blacky
hands him a package of heroin. Nike is
supposed to deliver it to a certain address
in Munich, receive a large payment and
return to Split.
But Nike plans to double cross Blacky, keep
the money he will get and stay in Germany.
He has already packed his belongings before
rushing to the bus station. But police are
waiting for him there and he barely manages
to escape. Realizing he was set up by Blacky,
Nike gives his best to find him. He does,
but during their fight Nike kills Blacky.
Unable to return to his own apartment Nike
decides to return to Maria to find shelter
there.
But, Maria's son notices Nike, waits for him
in front of the apartment and shoots him
with his late father's gun. Seriously
wounded, Nike stumbles down the steps, exits
onto the streets and dies while the New
Year's celebration is just starting.
In the second story we are introduced to
Maja, a young teenage heroin addict who has
a crisis and desperately needs a shot of
heroin. All her efforts to find drugs are
fruitless, so she turns to Blacky for help.
But he refuses to help her since she has no
money.
In the same time Blacky finds out that there
is a group of American sailors who are
looking for a prostitute. They want to treat
their buddy who is depressed since he has
just received a good-bye letter from his
fiancé. Blacky offers Maja to go with the
sailor and to "earn" for her heroin shot.
Maja, having no other choice, reluctantly
agrees.
Blacky takes Maja and the sailors to an old
woman who occasionally rents out her own
bedroom for such things. While Maja wants to
do it as soon as possible and get what she
desperately needs, the sailor called Franky
doesn’t show any intention to sleep with
her. He keeps telling her about his
ex-fiancé and tries to persuade Maja for
help with something he doesn't have courage
to do - to kill himself.
Maja refuses, but still, in the final
seconds towards the New Year desperate
Franky musters up courage and shoots himself
in the head. While the beautiful fireworks
display happens above the city, Maja, the
old woman and other sailors remain shocked
by what Franky just did.
In the third story we follow two teenagers,
Luke and Angela, who decided to lose their
virginity before the beginning of the New
Year. They have no place to go, and their
efforts to do it in an entrance of a
building were unsuccessful. Luke by
coincidence meets Blacky who offers him some
acid. Luke refuses, but then Blacky gives
him a key to a drug users' hide-out for the
sake of their old friendship.
Luka takes Angela to the empty apartment,
which dominates the Roman square where the
concert is held. To his surprise, Angela
gives Luka some LSD after which make love.
Soon after they begin to hallucinate; Angela
thinks that the building is leaning while
Luka feels he has large wings instead of his
arms.
While Angela was unable to react, Luka
climbs on the edge. In his imagination
begins to communicate with the singer and
the people at the concert down below. He
thinks they call him to jump down, so at the
end of New Year's countdown Luka bravely
jumps. Instead of falling down, to his great
surprise, he continues to fly. He sees down
below the concert that is interrupted, he
sees Nike who is dying and he sees the old
woman that yells for help. Luka continues to
fly, with a smile on his face, towards the
magnificent fireworks exploding above the
city. |
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