The film opens with a faux newsreel-presented as a sardonic allusion to the Yugoslav state-owned Filmske novosti news organization's tone and delivery-reporting on the 27 June 1971 opening ceremony of the Tunnel of Brotherhood and Unity near an unnamed village in the Goražde municipality in eastern SR Bosnia-Herzegovina, constituent unit of the Yugoslav Federation. The main timeframe includes the "present" with a hospitalized Milan, with flashbacks to both his childhood and his early adulthood in the 1980s until the war begins, and subsequent service as a soldier where he is trapped in the tunnel. The film features a non-linear plot line, and the scenes cut back and forth throughout the 1971 to 1999 time period in no particular order.
Following the success of the movie, Bulić wrote a novel named Tunel-essentially an expanded version of his magazine article. With nothing to do but wait for death, the trapped soldiers amuse themselves by staging allegorical circus acts.The plot is inspired by a real-life occurrence in eastern Bosnia from the opening stages of the Bosnian War, with the film's screenplay based on a Vanja Bulić-written, Duga magazine published long-form piece about the actual event. Later in the film, it will become the scene of horror when Serbian soldiers are trapped by Muslims within. The film opens with a shot of European and American dignitaries smiling broadly as they inaugurate the new Brotherhood and Unity tunnel that links Zagreb and Belgrade. Meanwhile, a beautiful American journalist is captured by the Serbs. The story moves to 1992 and begins as the war between the Serbs and the Muslim ignites in horrible violence and the friends find themselves forced into becoming enemies. Though curious, the boys were too frightened by the mythical boy-eating ogres said to venture within.
While growing up during the ’80s, the two often hung out near an abandoned tunnel. Set in Bosnia during 19 (like a pendulum, the time frame swings back and forth), and allegedly based upon a true story, the plot focuses upon the longtime friendship of Muslim Halil, and Serbian Milan. Though cloaked in explosive black humor, the serious anti-war message of this bitterly satirical and politically charged Yugoslav film cuts like shrapnel. Through flashbacks that describe the pre-war lives of each trapped soldier, the film describes life in pre-war Yugoslavia and tries to give a view as to why former neighbours and friends turned on each other.įollowing the success of the movie, Bulić wrote a novel named Tunel that’s essentially an expanded version of his magazine article. The film’s screenplay is based on an article written by Vanja Bulić for Duga magazine about the actual event. The plot, inspired by real life events that took place in the opening stages of the Bosnian War, tells a story about small group of Serb soldiers trapped in a tunnel by a Bosniak force. Twelve years later, during the Bosnian civil war, Milan, who is trapped in the tunnel with his troop, and Halil, find themselves on opposing sides, fatefully heading toward confrontation. They never dare go inside, as they believe an ogre resides there. Two young boys, Halil, a Muslim, and Milan, a Serb, have grown up together near a deserted tunnel linking the Yugoslav cities of Belgrade and Zagreb. In the hospital they remember their youth and the war. At the Belgrade army hospital, casualties of Bosnian civil war are treated.