Besa

At the very beginning of the World War I, Filip, a Serb and the principal of a gymnasium in a small Serbian town, is summoned urgently to Belgrade to serve in the war effort. He has no one to leave his wife Lea with. She is a young and pretty Slovenian woman, a teacher of rhythmics and dance he met while studying in Western Europe. Azem, an illiterate, patriarchal Albanian, the school custodian, gives Filip his solemn oath, his 'Besa' (in the Albanian tradition: when someone gives their word which must be kept even if they lose their life in the process) that he would look after Lea and see to it that nothing happened to her. Two Europeans, from two entirely different cultures and habits are forced to an awkward cohabitation in the empty school. While the war rages in the background and gets menacingly closer, their interaction develops from hatred, through intolerance, to tolerance and an unusual friendship. Circumstances gradually draw Lea and Azem, a Christian woman and a Muslim man, into a complex forbidden relationship - something like love! More than merely a romantic story, this movie is a paradigm of profound ethnic and class divisions in Europe in the early 20th century which some of them prevail to this day.

Grosses

Serbia and Montenegro
$40,563
Domestic ()
Summary Details
Distributor
Opening$5,619
5 theaters
Release DateApr 1, 2010
Running Time1 hr 46 min
GenresDrama Romance
In Release275 days/39 weeks
Widest Release5 theaters
DateRankWeekend %± LW TheatersChange AvgTo DateWeekend
Apr 1-43$5,619-5-$1,123$6,2051
Apr 8-115$4,921-12.4%5-$984$22,0962
Apr 15-186$2,975-39.5%5-$595$27,5533
Apr 22-257$2,387-19.8%5-$477$31,7504
Apr 29-May 212$752-68.5%5-$150$32,8055
May 6-913$993+32%5-$198$34,1866
May 13-1615$736-25.9%5-$147$35,9407
May 20-2313$717-2.6%5-$143$37,4198
May 27-3015$259-63.9%5-$51$38,2899
Jun 3-613$398+53.7%5-$79$35,57210
Jun 10-13
World Cup (South Africa)
15$276-30.7%5-$55$36,40711
Jun 17-20
World Cup (South Africa)
18$169-38.8%5-$33$36,99612
Jun 24-27
World Cup (South Africa)
11$1,181+598.8%5-$236$38,73213
Jul 1-4
World Cup (South Africa)
13$515-56.4%5-$103$40,56314