The Dagger (1999 film)
The Dagger is a 1999 Serbian war drama directed by Miroslav Lekić. It is based on Vuk Drašković’s novel Nož and features actors like Žarko Laušević and Bojana Maljević. The story is set in the 1960s and is told through the eyes of Alija Osmanović, a young Muslim medical student raised by his mother.
Alija’s family was killed and his baby brother kidnapped by Chetniks after a long feud between two clans, the Jugović (Christian) and the Osmanović (Muslim). He discovers that the Osmanović family used to be part of the Jugović clan and that he himself was a Jugović baby taken during the 1942 Christmas Eve massacre. Now torn between two cultures and identities, Alija searches for his long-lost step-brother while facing prejudice as he falls in love with a Serbian classmate. The film is fictional but centers on wartime crimes and the clash between the Jugović and Osmanović families; Drašković has said the novel loosely reflects the Pridvorica massacre.
Production details: The film was written by Miroslav Lekić, Slobodan Stojanović and Igor Bojović, produced by Bojan Maljević and Bojana Maljević, with cinematography by Veljko Despotović and editing by Branislav Milošević. Music was composed by Toma Babović and Aleksandar Milić. It was distributed by Monte Royal Pictures, runs 135 minutes, and is in Serbian, produced in Serbia and Montenegro.
Reception: The Dagger premiered at the 1999 Montenegro Film Festival, where it won several awards. It also earned the FIPRESCI Award for Directing, along with multiple acting prizes at the Niš Film Festival and the Crystal Star at the Brussels Film Festival.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 19:59 (CET).