Original subtitles

A film by Lordan Zafranovi�

THE CHRONICLE OF AN ISLAND (THE FALL OF ITALY)

Written by

Starring

Have you got some water, Vicenzo? -I do! -Give me!

You're honest and flink, take it and drink!

Music by

Directed by

Oh, my Davorin...

You're just like Niko.

As if you were his brother.

Is your father any better?

Old devil, he had more than his share of them!

Niko, tell the old lady to go. I need to have a word with you.

You know she doesn't understand a word. -She's disturbing me.

Oh, disgraceful days! I'm not even allowed to listen anymore!

In my dreams I saw the Blessed Virgin laughing!

God forgive!

No, I won't go to the village anymore.

That's what you advised me, Blessed Lady.

Where did you leave Krasna?

She's got some field work to do. Why do you need her?

She's been removed from the function in the Local Committee.

Your cases have been passed to the District Committee.

She was sent to organize the Anti-Fascist Women's Front.

That is to say, to get rid of her disease to change men!

Since she arrived, not a single meeting's been held!

She's got entangled with you

and separated you from the Party and your assignments.

And you're not the only one she has!

What else am I being blamed for? -I'll tell you what I think.

I've never trusted you people from rich families.

At the same time a playboy, an Anglophile, a bourgeois

and a communist! That can't be.

Just like you can't wear that silk scarf with a red star!

With a weakness for women and a revolutionary!

And what does the Party want from me? -To leave Krasna!

What does all this mean?

The Party is going to be the third wheel too?

The fourth too, if necessary, when the discipline's broken!

Niko, there's no water. The water thank's empty!

Get lost! -Drop dead!

Long live Italy!

What a nice dog!

Peace be upon this home...

We're helping in the name of our Lord.

We ask God to hear our prayers

and send your angel from above to protect this body.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. -Amen.

You've come, my son!

May the holy angel guard the cross and protect the netherworld,

in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. -Amen.

A cat came into the house.

Trouble awaits. -Quiet, mother.

Call upon his soul into company of your saints,

in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. -Amen.

Why don't you share it with your brothers, Ljubo?

I've earned it myself, I'll eat it myself.

Just as I pray and go to confession myself.

But God didn't give you much brains.

I've got enough to know what's bad. -And that is?

You persuading brothers to join the Partisans.

We'll suffer. We won't lose our lives because of a wild one!

The queen's arriving.

What queen? -The queen, Davorin.

The daughter of Grgo Kusturin. She's returning from Florence.

She won't be a queen very long.

Where's Lovre?

Don't touch him! He's still a child!

Quiet, mother! Leave me alone!

There are younger ones than me among the Partisans.

There are women too!

The whole family should be on the right side.

Not wait a wink! The whole town should do it!

Right, Lovre. And what are you waiting for, Andrija?

Maria will have the baby any day now.

You'll all go to hell! Davorin, you'll be the first!

That's what father Blago says. Priests always know better.

Isn't that so, father Blago?

I'm here to give confession to the sinner, not to meddle with politics.

And to give him absolution.

The queen...

The queen is coming!

Our beauty!

I'm on my knees.

The queen is coming.

Come on, Ljubo. Grgo's daughter is arriving.

So what? You've all gone fucking crazy as if she was a real queen.

She is to me.

The one who gives bread to your kids is a real queen! Let's go, Ljubo!

It's clear. He's not breathing. -We must light a candle.

Angels, take him to heaven. Martyrs, welcome him.

May a choir of angels meet you and take you into lap of Abraham's.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Get lost!

He'll take all his teeth to the grave with him.

Put both his legs into one sock so the old devil doesn't come back!

Oh, my Marin, you fit into one sock.

Get lost!

Go to hell! Get lost!

I'm sorry about your old man.

Krasna betrayed us.

There's evidence she's been working for the Italians all this time too.

And Niko? -He wouldn't renounce the bitch.

He believes her more than us.

A man in love is a blind man.

And what now? -Don't go home anymore.

The Italians know everything. -Bitch!

The District Committee has reached the final decision

to have Krasna liquidated. -And Niko?

Are you capable of doing it?

If it's a directive. -Be it a directive or not!

The one who's betrayed us can't be your friend.

The Italians!

Thank you.

Up!

Bravo.

Here, take these apples. -Thank you.

Bye. -Bye.

Stop, Krasna!

Get off the horse!

I wanted to go down to the sea. -Why?

To do my laundry.

I've been in the field the whole week.

Here are the names of everyone who gave of their own free will.

And here are those we took from.

This is what Grgo Kusturin sent us.

He's playing on both sides.

And this is what Krasna got from the Italians.

She can speak their language.

Did you ask her what else she got from them? And in what way!

I warned you as a comrade to denounce her.

I can't. -She betrayed the Movement!

You knew it, but didn't tell us.

I decide for myself what I do.

Then you have condemned yourself.

I want you to marry us.

I'm not a priest!

Please, marry us.

I've got no time for litanies.

You're obliged to share everything, both joy and sorrow.

Death to fascism, freedom to the people!

There, you're married.

Away the pest, away the scab,

tomorrow is the feast of St. John.

What are you doing here? -Swimming.

Why are you looking at me like that?

It's the first time I see a Partisan.

The cat looked at the emperor and wasn't afraid,

and you, a queen, you're scared!

What kind of swimming is this?

You're beautiful. I knew you when you were a child.

What did you study in Florence? -Fine arts.

Here you can hear best when it's noon on my father's estate.

Me and my family were also a part of his estate! My brother Ljubo still is!

Where's your rosary?

Come on, girls! This is a celebration for our friends!

Let them feel at home. Gobo, #tarantela#!

I can't play those modern dances. -Yes, you can!

Quick, guys!

Have you got any clothes for her too?

You're also dressed for the party!

Now play #pr�unera#!

How dare you come here? Someone may denounce you to the Italians.

If anyone told them, they'd be running away, not me.

#�ilencija#, #�ilencija#, good #balarin#!

Quick, quick!

Ante, the courier, brought the news.

You've been appointed commander of our company.

New fascists are arriving. A punitive expedition.

The one you were whispering to, is that your girlfriend?

I don't have a girlfriend!

I prefer dancing with my daughter! Faster!

Theater! Everything's a theater!

#Madonna Clara#!

#Before me all Latin virtues. #And outside, always Rome.

Mrs... Please.

A grape for you... You're beautiful.

You should be an actress. Beautiful!

One more.

#It's important that a handshake #and kiss turn into thought...

You're beautiful, you know?

Nice tits!

I'd like to eat them.

Cuckold! Dirty fascist!

Down with Italy!

Run, children! They'll kill you all!

You mustn't do that, people!

Heads will roll!

Italy is big!

Let me go!

Why are you looking up? Repent and surrender your soul to God.

Davorin will shoot scum like you! -You have to die!

You're in league with the devil! You must die, you misfit!

Jele, my daughter! Why is God punishing us?

Oh, Lord, let them see the light, they don't know what they're doing.

Right! I told them, but nobody would listen.

A miracle!

The Mother of God has appeared. The Blessed Virgin!

Look! In the window...

Blessed Mother, give me back my Niko!

My beloved Madonna...

Rid me of seven God's diseases,

of habits and hiccups, fever and gripes!

Of tremors, farts and the stutter!

No! You mustn't kiss the Mother!

The Blessed Virgin killed him because of my Niko!

Jesus be praised. -Forever!

Are you taking a gun to the mass?

As long as the devil is around, one must be prepared.

Put it away, father Blago.

Especially since you're going to preach about something

that has nothing to do with God!

A priest is God's warrior, always leading his flock.

You shouldn't take either side. Both commit sins.

And when you choose a side, try to see where the people stand.

Refrain yourself, father Blago!

Brothers and sisters, do you know what the devil is?

I'll tell you.

When God was creating the world,

the devil created his own world against Him!

So God created the man and the devil created the woman.

God created the sheep, the devil created the goat.

God created the dog, the devil created the cat.

God created the eel, the devil created the snake.

God created the bee, the devil created the caterpillar.

God created vines, the devil created blackberries.

God created justice, the devil created injustice.

Tell me, brothers, what is better?

What the devil created!

What's bad can't be better!

The devil is bad and the Partisans are on his side!

And your brother Davorin is the worst of all devils,

and he will go to hell. Get out, you Satan! You miserable freak!

What was it you brought me?

Where's oil and wine, honey and ham, as I advised you?

We have none, father Blago. Our children are hungry.

You mustn't lie that you have none in front of Him!

It's not for me, it's for our Ustasha brothers on the mainland.

Tomorrow they'll defend you from the red antichrist!

If you don't bring any, I can come and take it from you.

By force, if necessary. Shoot you if you refuse!

This gun will stay here instead of a candle.

Jesus accepted the passion of the Cross!

Father Blago!

Who's there?

It's you, devil! I thought it might be you.

I came for confession. -Go to hell!

Father Blago, I'd really like to confess myself.

What? What do you have to say?

I jerked off in front of the Blessed Virgin!

Devils! The whole family!

Where's my gun? I'll show you, Satan!

I've been expecting you here.

Get off.

Where has Madonna disappeared? -Was she here?

I was christened here. -In Madonna's church?

My mother used to give donations to this church.

She's a God's woman. -Whose? -God's.

Then your father must be God!

I used to come here as a child too.

Priests would whip me and rap my fingers because I made fun of them.

But how?

They'd ask me whether I learned the Ten Commandments,

and I would say I did. Can you preach then?

And all the kids would say: the Ten Commandments, a plate of fish.

The head of a turkey, the tail of...

a goose! And then we'd all sing: I repent...

I make the sign of the cross and I run away.

#I pray to the Lord #and the Virgin Mary

#to have beautiful children.

You're not asleep?

I can't sleep a wink in this house.

This was the safest place for us last night.

Luce is mad, so nobody comes here.

The sea is also near, for our contacts...

What's wrong? What's on your mind?

Have I killed Niko only because he loved Krasna?

This is the revolution and they betrayed it.

Why didn't he renounce that Italian whore?

I can't understand why.

He couldn't, because he was weak.

How can a communist love a traitor?

I've prepared breakfast for you, children.

We don't have time for it. -I can only offer this much.

Thank you, auntie Luce.

That's more than enough.

Mare's due any day now. I can't go to another island with you.

You have to. They need us there. The fascists have lost their mind here.

They're shooting everyone. When we come back, we'll be the winners!

Leave me here.

Is something wrong? -The fighters are talking only about you.

Let them, they should talk about me.

It would be good if they were saying nice things, but they aren't.

And it's bad for the Movement. Something's wrong.

Either with you or the Movement. -What's wrong?

You know very well what. -What?

They say you're in love with Grgo Kusturin's daughter.

For God's sake, is being in love so wrong?

You're a poor fisherman and she's a rich man's daughter.

You yourself used to say a bourgeois is a traitor!

Andrija, don't meddle with things you don't know about.

But others know. You think the Party doesn't know?

Have you got anything else to say? -No.

I just told you the rumors. If it's true, it'll harm you.

I've got some good news. Tell Mom Lovre's fine.

He became the youngest deputy commissar in Dalmatia!

You've come.

Breathe, Mare, breathe!

Push!

It's a boy, Mare! My falcon!

A boy!

Evil eyes, evil doers, be gone! Leave this child in peace!

Go to the mountains, to green valleys,

where roosters don't sing and hens don't cackle,

where children don't call their mother by her name.

What's the matter, Ljubo? -I'm ill.

What's wrong? -Dampness got into my bones.

Andro...

Get lost, you disgrace!

Get lost!

Get lost!

I saw a Partisan!

Leave me alone!

The door, mother!

Don't let the child cry!

Where's the Partisan?

No! No! -You whore, where is he?

Maybe there are guns here.

Prepare torture devices.

We have to christen him, Mare. He'll die! -Where are you going?

Be his godfather, please!

You can't take a Partisan bastard to the church!

The church belongs to God, not you! -You can't!

Go away, son! The child will die unchristened!

What name shall we give to this child?

We'll name him after my late husband. -Marin? May he rest in peace.

I christen you in the name of Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

God Almighty anoints you with a Cross of Salvation.

For life eternal. Amen.

And some salt of wisdom.

May God be with you.

Here's a pencil, may he be smart.

Let's go!

What a whore!

Here's a dress! I like this!

A real whore! -Let's go!

Now the hair!

What a beautiful whore!

You can start now, Mr. Colonel!

The spirits are held in small containers.

Give me that.

No!

Beasts! No! No!

#Signor colonello#, we've set the disgrace on fire

and driven God's punishment away!

This is a theater!

Theater! Everything's a theater!

Pull the cork out.

Pull the cork out.

People!

Italy has fallen!

The disgrace has fallen!

They've capitulated!

You viper! -Damn you, dirty beast!

Damn beast! May my eyes never see you again!

People! People!

They're running away! Don't let them get away!

Leave my horses alone, don't scare them!

Don't come near, I'll shoot!

Leave my horses alone!

Go away, people!

There's nothing here! I'm innocent!

Long live the revolution!

Whatever you've got, you'll give it to those who have nothing to eat!

You've given more than enough to the Italians!

There's oil, wine, everything!

You lied, you son of a bitch!

You gained all this by stealing from us and lying to us.

The Italians can't save you anymore!

Oh, my God!

What is happening? -This'll be the fate of every traitor!

Long live people's justice!

It all belongs to the people! Take it home with you!

A bourgeois nest!

People!

Run, people!

The Partisans are coming!

Run! The Partisans are coming!

Long live the revolution!

Mussolini has gone to hell.

It's best if you joined the National-Liberation Army

to justify yourselves in front of your people who don't know why you're here.

If you don't, you'll get killed by the Germans and by the blackshirts.

Take food, water and boat and you can go back to Italy.

The rest of you will be tried for your crimes by the people's court.

Long live people's rule!

Long live our fighters!

Down with landholders and merchants!

Long live the revolution!

What's going on? -People are rejoicing.

Down with the bourgeoisie!

Gobo, stop it!

Everybody out!

We are the regular army!

Our Liberation Committees are people's government.

We also have laws against theft and plunder.

What you've just done stains the Movement!

Mistaken are those who think the revolution is plunder!

Take everything back to where you took it from!

To the last spoon! Ringleaders will be prosecuted!

Arrest him! -What is all this, brother Davorin?

You yourself said we should take everything from the rich

and give it to the poor! -I will be the judge of you!

You can't! Have mercy, for my children's sake!

He should be whipped until he bleeds!

Put a bullet to his head!

You needed no more than this stump to salute like a fascist!

Half an arm, half a salute.

That won't help you.

Will I be prosecuted?

If I didn't hate to soil my hands, I'd sentence you right away!

What's all this? First Italian crimes, now Partisans'?

What do you want? -Return the islands to their rightful owner!

And that is? -The Independent State of Croatia.

We were cheated enough by Mussolini, to hell with him!

You might lose your ass, since you don't have any brains!

What is your rule like? Like the evening wind.

And what's your ultimate goal?

Abolish religion, God and Croatian people!

You live like antichrists! Freaks!

Cut that brainless chant.

Croatian people is paying for the freedom with its own blood!

Degenerate Ustashas like you and father Blago

have brought much evil and shame on us!

Croatian people will sentence you! -Right!

And shoot them! -What was that song you were singing?

#Whoever kills Davorin, the swine, #gets a bottle of my best wine!

Don't!

Don't, son! Don't, Davorin!

Don't soil your hands! He's full of sin and misfortune!

God has punished him enough.

And it wouldn't bring back my Andro.

I'm sinful and miserable! Forgive me!

Get lost!

Forgive me!

Here in the middle it's warm as on a stove.

Come here! Come here!

What is it, Bo�ica? Is this the way to barge in?

An order by the Operational Zone Headquarters.

Tell her to get out!

It's freezing!

I'm exhausted!

Your hair smells like rosemary.

What was the Headquarters' order?

The Germans, together with the Ustashas, the Circassians

and the Chetniks, are getting ready to occupy the islands.

Is that all?

The order is to defend the islands.

By setting up machine gun nests and mobile units.

Since the situation is not critical, we'll stay where we are for now.

We've just established our rule and we have to keep it.

The Movement is getting weaker. People are going home.

You've taken a huge responsibility.

Davorin! -What? -Our fighters are getting killed on the mainland

because of a possible attack.

We have to organize the evacuation of the whole island.

Is that an order too?

There's something else that might cheer you up. -What?

A brigade was set up from companies from all islands.

Your younger brother Lovre

has been appointed deputy commissar.

That means he's near. Mother will be very happy.

#There is good wine in our village

#And now I will make #a toast for our Davorin.

#To Davorin! #For he's a jolly good fellow...

Who'll dare for this beautiful head? -I will!

May it be paid for what it's worth or we'll cut it off!

This is Niko's mother.

Auntie Luce, take a seat. Eat with us.

I haven't come for the wedding.

Have some. Please.

You could do something and let everyone know

that my Niko was innocent. -Luce, I'm not alone.

You could, Davorin. -Sure.

If I believed that.

And you don't?

Davorin, everyone says you killed him.

Sure they do. They talk about me and so they should!

Did you do it?

I'd like to know before I die.

Better go in peace, auntie Luce.

Rex!

#I have three daughters #and I'd like to have a son.

#Now I will toast to our Davorin.

#Cheers!

Strange land. Zeko...

Which way should we go?

What unpleasant rocks, damn it!

Let's go down there.

Get ready, brothers!

Follow me!

Follow me, my pirate brothers!

Come on!

I'm flying here like an eagle, around our houses and Croatian fields

and above your heads.

Like an eagle. From the hills the SS divisions are coming like eagles.

God's providence is with me, and with you, if you're on my side. -I am!

What is it?

Why are you shitting your pants?

His brother is a Partisan commander.

Really? -It's not true.

Someone who is against the Independent State of Croatia

can't be my brother. -Then you're on our side?

Yes. For homeland - ready!

You're not the only Ustasha here. Where are the others?

They've joined the Partisans. -Get lost!

If you're with us, you must take the Holy Communion.

Kneel down!

Kneel down!

What do you see? -An angel.

Close your eyes.

Now open your mouth so I can give you the communion.

He's on our side!

Someone who isn't as innocent as a bird can't be an Ustasha.

Let's go!

Wine...

Get lost! Get lost, you cripple!

Have mercy!

Long live Davorin!

Comrade commander,

the prisoners are from a student Chetnik battalion.

What are they doing here, for God's sake?

They say they are pirate Chetniks, ridding the islands of communists.

What are you doing here on the coast?

You look like lost goats.

Some soldiers! Pirates!

Caught like old hags!

Every nation has its own stench. You're all the same!

The Ustashas, the Krauts, the Italians and you Chetniks.

And you have neither a common religion nor ideas, only evil!

Pieces of shit!

Last month the headquarters of Croatian Partisan brigades

sent a proclamation to Serbs among the Chetniks

to stop collaborating with the aggressor. Join us or go home!

Those who want to join us will be accepted.

We are mere peasants and family men. To be honest,

we'd prefer going home. -I'm a peasant too.

I'd also like to go home. -Cut their hair and beards and let them go.

What did he say? -They'll cut our hair. -Get lost, you scum!

And stay away from that cunt priest �uri�!

You shouldn't have let them go! -What else? -Shoot them!

I obey the proclamation. -It's different here in the field.

I'm the commander here, I'm the one making decisions.

Kid, are there any Partisans here?

Sometimes there are, sometimes there aren't.

Would you come with us and show us the way?

What should I do with the goats? -Bring them along.

The port is down there. You have to go that way.

Get the goats!

How come you're here, our Circassian brothers?

Hello, father! Let me introduce myself.

My name is Nikolai Melynikoff, this is Vasily Danisenko

and this Janosz Mirnoff, the Hungarian!

We are Chetnik pirates!

How come your hair and beard were shaved off?

You haven't seen the Germans?

We went to the village and finished our work there.

#Comrades# have killed the Krauts. Thank God, we were lucky!

This time they only cut our hair.

Next time we'll cut off thier balls!

We cut off their connection and caught two love birds.

I love communists! Dead ones!

Janosz raped them.

We left the bodies to the Partisans.

They cried like pigs.

You're wearing a rosary? Can you say a prayer?

Hail Mary, full of grace, Our Lord is with you.

Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,

now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Make him the sign of the Cross.

Now go and join the Partisans in the woods!

What's wrong, Ante? Why are you crying?

The Chetniks and the Circassians slaughtered my whole village,

all the children, to the last one.

They pulled my Mom's eyes out and said...

Now go to your Partisan son.

Jesus Christ! Where are they?

They sailed away in the moonlight.

Comrade commander, they're waiting for you at the headquarters.

You must come at once.

I feel sorry for you.

When I start speaking, don't think I'm a jealous woman.

Anyone else would say the same thing.

Sit down, Davorin.

You're removed from the position of a commander.

You're charged for not taking necessary measures

in order to defend the island.

You didn't order guards where necessary.

During vintage we lost our best comrades,

since you sent them there on your own initiative.

We captured the Chetniks, but you let them go.

Those beasts slaughtered innocent people.

Children, women and the old.

The Movement is getting weaker

and you got married and started the life of leisure.

Following your example, fighters are leaving home.

The revolution is above private matters,

but you've turned your back on it.

Do I get any credit in all this, Bo�ica?

Mistakes wipe off credits.

We're not talking about credits here, we're establishing guilt.

Do you plead guilty? -No, I don't.

If it's necessary...

Shoot me.

Your case has been sent to the HQ of the Mid-Dalmatian Islands Region.

Until they decide, you're assigned as a fighter to the First Company.

Your brother Lovre was appointed commissar

of the Island Brigade. He will sentence you.

Here's Lovre!

Lovre! You've come back, my son.

Mother!

Is Lovre going to defend me?

I feel like...

Veronika.

Let's run away. They'll shoot you because of me.

Let them do what must be done.

I can't run away from the Movement

til we've liberated all the islands and the entire country.

Davorin told us about your high rank. Everyone praises you.

Shall we sit here?

I've come here as a political commissar, not as your brother.

It was a directive?

I wish it wasn't.

I don't drink. -Are you going to eat here?

Should mother prepare something?

Yes, we'll eat here.

What does it mean, I betrayed the Movement?

Did you? What do you think?

I don't understand how it's possible for us to sit here as enemies.

I think you've trampled down some sacred things.

For instance? -You should have been strong and renounced Veronika.

Why is she to blame for the sins of her family?

A commander must be like a saint!

Lovre's come to taste the new wine.

I've told you, I don't drink.

Is it any good?

One could hold a sermon with it.

Can you please kill the rooster? -You can't? -No.

Blessed Virgin, you can't kill a rooster!

I've never been able to do it. Take it to mother.

Give it to me.

Nobody reckons with me anymore?

Our Movement can't reckon with weaklings.

What's going to happen to me, Lovre?

You can't be on both sides.

With a wife from a traitor's family and in the Party.

In fact, I've come to tell you

that you've been expelled by the District Committee.

You haven't been tried because of your love,

but because you detached yourself from the Party and the assignments.

And now what?

Your case was settled by the Military Tribunal

of the Mid-Dalmatian Islands Headquarters.

I feel ashamed before you.

But I don't know where it comes from or why.

Are you afraid of dying?

No.

I'm not afraid.

Comrades, raise your guns!

Do your duty.

Aim!

What are you waiting for?

Shoot!

Translated to English by virginwolf

THE END