DIRECTOR: Ivona Juka
STARRING: Dado Cosic, Emir Hadzihafizbegovic, Dorde Galic, Slaven Doslo, Elmir Krivalic
RUNNING TIME: 2 hrs 17 minutes
LANGUAGE: Croatian
In the aftermath of World War II, four close friends, Lovro, Nenad, Stevan, and Ivan, who once fought as Partisans against the Ustashas and Nazis, rise to fame as visionary filmmakers in 1950s Communist Yugoslavia. But in 1957, as rumors about their sexual orientation begin to circulate, the regime grows suspicious. Emir, a hardened party loyalist, is tasked with dismantling their lives and careers. As the friends’ pursuit of artistic and personal freedom turns into a battle for survival, Emir is forced to confront the limits of his loyalty—and the humanity of those he was sent to destroy.
Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day is a drama.
To check out all previous submissions for Croatia, click HERE.
STARRING: Dado Cosic, Emir Hadzihafizbegovic, Dorde Galic, Slaven Doslo, Elmir Krivalic
RUNNING TIME: 2 hrs 17 minutes
LANGUAGE: Croatian
In the aftermath of World War II, four close friends, Lovro, Nenad, Stevan, and Ivan, who once fought as Partisans against the Ustashas and Nazis, rise to fame as visionary filmmakers in 1950s Communist Yugoslavia. But in 1957, as rumors about their sexual orientation begin to circulate, the regime grows suspicious. Emir, a hardened party loyalist, is tasked with dismantling their lives and careers. As the friends’ pursuit of artistic and personal freedom turns into a battle for survival, Emir is forced to confront the limits of his loyalty—and the humanity of those he was sent to destroy.
Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day is a drama.
To check out all previous submissions for Croatia, click HERE.
"Fool, of course they're normal. Let the kids live their lives."
Ivona Juka’s Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day is a bold and emotionally resonant portrait of postwar Yugoslavia, where the heroism of wartime resistance clashes with the quiet cruelty of ideological persecution in the 1950s. Centering on four former Partisan comrades turned acclaimed filmmakers, the film explores the suffocating pressures they face as their sexual identities draw the suspicion of a repressive regime. Juka masterfully evokes a world of quiet dread and fragile intimacy, where every creative act becomes a form of defiance. With stark, poetic cinematography and a score that murmurs with restrained sorrow, the film immerses viewers in an atmosphere thick with both beauty and fear.
At its core, Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day delivers a powerful meditation on the human cost of repression and the enduring strength of authenticity. By showing how political systems often turn on the very people who once served them, the film exposes the deep contradictions at the heart of ideological control. Juka challenges the erasure of difference and the betrayal of revolutionary ideals, insisting that freedom—whether personal, artistic, or emotional—can only exist through acceptance. In its quietest moments, the film reveals love not just as a source of hope, but as an act of resistance. It is a haunting, deeply human work.
