Insiders, especially those who in the past faithfully visited the Pula festival, maintain that it's always been that way. They are aware that several Serb directors - Aleksandar Petrovic, Zika Pavlovic, Srdjan Pavlovic, Dusan Makavejev, the new generation of Srdjan Karanovic, Goran Markovic, Slobodan Sijan, and Goran Paskaljevic - clawed their way to the top at the major festivals by making films on a shoestring that were "shot in a garage" (as one director put it).

The best Serb film-makers specialise in black comedy - that is, social themes shot from a knee-deep-in-thick mud perspective, or honest, forthright, no-holds-barred cinema.

Lazar Ristovski, a familiar face on the Yugoslav screen from his variety of roles (Underground, Tito And Me, Balkan Rules) plays the lead, Savo, a warm-hearted army recruit from the provinces. When he receives an emergency telegram from his brother to hurry home because his mother is dying, asking him to "please bring along the white suit I gave you" - he hurries off to catch a rickety train.

Along the way, he meets and falls in love with Carmen (Radmila Sogoljevica), a beautiful Russian hooker who gets on the train with her pimp. Veteran actors Bata Zivojinovic, Dragan Nikolic, and Bata Stojkovic appear in cameos. Ron Holloway