''We Are Not Angels'' ( sr, Ми нисмо анђели / ''Mi nismo anđeli'') is a 1992 Serbian and Yugoslavian

comedy movie A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the olde ...

directed by Srđan Dragojević that became one of the most popular films of the 1990s in the region of the former Yugoslavia. The plot revolves around Angel (played by

Uroš Đurić Uroš Đurić (; born 4 December 1964) is a Serbian conceptual artist, actor and painter based in Belgrade. He studied art history at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy and painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. In 1980 ...

) and Devil (

Srđan Todorović Srđan "Žika" Todorović ( sr-cyr, Срђан "Жика" Тодоровић, ; born 28 March 1965) is a Serbian actor and musician. He has played in numerous bands, including Ekatarina Velika, Disciplina Kičme, Radnička Kontrola and Bezobraz ...

) fighting for the soul of Belgrade playboy Nikola ( Nikola Kojo) who is unaware that he impregnated a high school student named Marina (

Milena Pavlović Milena may refer to: * ''Milena'' (skipper), a genus of skippers in the family Hesperiidae * Milena, Sicily, a ''comune'' in the Province of Caltanissetta, Italy * Milena (given name), a popular female Slavic name * ''Milena'' (film), a 1991 Fr ...

) during a drunken one-night stand. The film was lauded by critics for its inventive direction, tight editing, urban humour and its large number of pop culture references. Its commercial success and later cult status, however, could be at least partially attributed to specific circumstances at the time of the film's premiere. Namely, before the film reached theatres, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was put under UN sanctions, thus depriving local theatres of Hollywood blockbusters. Many Yugoslavian films filled that void and had great commercial success, including ''We Are Not Angels''. However, Yugoslavian movies were anyway the most popular in Yugoslavia (both SFRJ and FRJ).

Characters

* Nikola Milojević ( Nikola Kojo), a

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

playboy who has slept with almost every girl in town. He is a 20-year-old literature student, and lives with his friend Marta. He has one problem: due to his regular morning hangovers he can never remember the girl he slept with the night before. Marina's pregnancy makes Nikola insecure and frightened, but he finally falls in love with Marina. They get a baby girl, named Sofija. * Marina (

), an 18-year-old honor student. Nikola is the first guy she's slept with, but she gets pregnant. She decides to keep the baby, and falls in love with Nikola, wanting him all for herself. Her friend Buba has many plans of how to do it, and Marina's not always all right with her plans but still carries through with them. At the end of the movie, Marina gives a birth to a beautiful baby girl, Sofija. * Ljubinka "Buba" Prodanović ( Branka Katić), Marina's best friend, an 18-year-old pupil of the High School of Beauty Care. She is the world's biggest fan of Barbara Sidney (a fictional author), and also the author of the book ''The most famous playboys of Belgrade''. Buba tries to get Marina and Nikola together, basing her plans on Barbara Sidney's

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

s. She is helped by Raca, who she constantly spurns until the end of the movie. * Devil (

) and Angel (

), the two spirits overlooking Nikola, playing a game - if Nikola falls in love with Marina and takes care of their baby, Angel wins, while if he refuses to take responsibility, Devil wins.

Production

The movie was shot during fall 1991 using the production capabilities of

Avala Film Avala Film ( sr-cyr, Aвала филм) is a Serbian film studio, founded in 1946 as the first studio founded in post-war Yugoslavia. It is currently declared bankrupt. Overview In June 1946, the government of the Socialist Federal Republic of Y ...

. The making of the movie coincided with the beginning stages of the disintegration of

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...

that included continual ethnically motivated incidents in the breakaway constituent republic of SR Croatia that culminated in the

Battle of Vukovar The Battle of Vukovar was an 87-day siege of Vukovar in eastern Croatia by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), supported by various paramilitary forces from Serbia, between August and November 1991. Before the Croatian War of Independence the Bar ...

. Since the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) was involved in the above conflict, it was conscripting young men for battle thus many of the film's male crew members including director Dragojević received military call-ups. According to Dragojević, in order to avoid the draft, they resorted to sleeping in different apartments most nights during the movie's shooting.; November 2011

Release and reception

The film was lauded by critics for its inventive direction, tight editing, urban humour and its large number of pop culture references. Its commercial success and later cult status, however, could be at least partially attributed to specific circumstances at the time of the film's premiere. Namely, before the film reached theatres, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was put under UN sanctions, thus depriving local theatres of Hollywood blockbusters. Many Serbian films filled that void and had great commercial success, including ''We Are Not Angels''. In 1996, the members of the Yugoslavian Board of the Academy of Film Art and Science (AFUN) voted this film the ninth best Serbian movie in the 1947–1995 period.

Sequels

''
We Are Not Angels 2 In Modern English, ''we'' is a plural, first-person pronoun. Morphology In Standard Modern English, ''we'' has six distinct shapes for five word forms: * ''we'': the nominative (subjective) form * ''us'' and ': the accusative (objective; ...
'' (2005)

Break-through role of

Mirka Vasiljević Mirka Vasiljević ( sr-Cyrl, Мирка Васиљевић; born 27 September 1990) is a Serbian actress and occasional model and television presenter. She rose to domestic fame with the 2005 film ''We Are Not Angels 2'', the sequel to the 1992 ...

who became a teen idol.

'' We Are Not Angels 3: Rockenroll Strikes Back'' (2006)

References

External links

* {{Srđan Dragojević 1992 films 1990s Serbian-language films Serbian comedy films Films directed by Srđan Dragojević Socialist Republic of Serbia Films set in Serbia 1992 in Serbia 1992 comedy films The Devil in film Films shot in Serbia Culture in Belgrade 1992 directorial debut films Films set in Belgrade Films shot in Belgrade