Before the Truth

"Pre istine" is a visually striking and angsty urban melodrama of two men who meet in swinging 60s Belgrade after a traumatic experience in WW2. They reconcile and realize that even though one of them was a patriot and the other one was a traitor during the war, their position switched because the traitor was rehabilitated while the patriot became a disgraced Party official on the run.

Kokan Rakonjac and DP Aleksandar Petkovic did an outstanding job when it comes to the visual concept of this film. Their use of low-angles and camera movements is outstanding and the approach to use of lenses is ahead of its time. Thus cinematography of this film really uses attractive urban locations to the fullest. With such charismatic leading men like Ljuba Tadic and Branko Plesa on screen, "Pre istine" is quite a feat, Sadly, Rakonjac died just a year after this film and managed only to shoot one more feature - "Zazdidani" - an unofficial sequel to "Pre istine".

In this phase of his career, Rakonjac was obviously in outstanding creative shape and the history of Yugoslav film could have been different had he lived.