The Professional 2003

In 2001, Teodor “Teja” Kraj Branislav Lečić is a former Belgrade University literature professor who has become the manager of a large publishing house. His workers are ready to strike over privatization, led by Jovan Petrović Miodrag ‘Miki’ Krstović. Teja cynically brushes off the demands and plans to celebrate his 48th birthday with his secretary and lover, Marta Nataša Ninković.

A strange man arrives at Teja’s office carrying a briefcase and a large suitcase, insisting on speaking with him. He claims to be a writer and presents Teja with four books ready for publication, hinting that they contain classified information bound in secret by his daughter. He says he won’t be returning, as he is scheduled for a potentially deadly operation. The mysterious man introduces himself as Luka Laban Borivoje Todorović, a former officer of the State Security.

Luka explains that he has followed Teja for ten years, reporting his movements daily. He reveals that his daughter, Ana (now married in Canada), compiled the four books listing Teja as the author, and that Ana wants nothing to do with her father. The books are a collection of stories from the countryside and city life, a set of speeches, and a mysterious fourth volume bound together as a kind of secret dossier. Teja tries to send the man away, yet Luka makes it clear he won’t be leaving. The tension thickens as Teja learns that Luka’s purpose is not simple intrusion but a long, intimate surveillance.

What follows are a series of stories showing how Luka managed to either observe Teja or infiltrate his circle, which includes Maki Josif Tatić—a fat, grumpy, and often drunk figure—and Gipsani Dragan Jovanović, a quirky, boastful man who is frequently injured. Across these episodes, Teja is shown resisting the Milošević regime, with Luka quietly shadowing him at every turn. Marta and the strikers repeatedly misread the interactions between Teja and Luka, imagining things like attempted murder or even inappropriate advances.

Luka first learned of Teja during the 9 March 1991 protests, where Teja delivered a speech while Luka watched through a live camera and even suggested staging a car accident, a plan that was rejected. A flashback to 1993 finds Luka posing as a newspaper salesman and joining Teja, Maki, and Gipsani at a kafana; Teja narrowly avoids a fight, then hallucinates and contemplates suicide in the bathroom, a moment Luka later encounters. Luka reveals he was the driver behind Teja’s limp from a secret car accident in 1995, and Teja snaps at him, only for Marta to interrupt and save him from further danger. The two later share a laugh about the ridiculous and brutal past.

Luka opens his suitcase to reveal that it contains ordinary things Teja has lost over the past decade—mostly during bouts of heavy drinking. He recounts New Year’s Eve 1997, when Ana gave Teja a set of binoculars, a gift Luka later recovered. He had discovered Teja and Ana were dating when Ana was a freshman in his class, and he followed them to a strip club where Teja’s life intersected with Ana’s. There, Luka suffers a stroke and is hospitalized. In the hospital, he tells Ana that he has been following her relationship with Teja and promises he won’t murder Teja.

Back in the present, Teja drinks with Maki and Gipsani in a kafana, while Marta presses for action from the workers. Teja is briefly separated from Luka, who checks a recording device planted in Teja’s office and weighs whether to switch it off. When Teja returns, Luka reveals he had been collecting Teja’s lost mail, including letters from his parents in Šid, and even visited Teja’s parents posing as a police academy acquaintance—revealing how Teja’s family felt abandoned by him.

Luka also shows Teja a photograph-laden record of Teja and Ana, which he forwarded to Teja’s university. The university subsequently expelled Teja for sexual misconduct, and Ana suffered a nervous breakdown and dropped out. Luka confesses that he became an alcoholic in that period and concedes, perhaps ruefully, that his actions might have been “worth it.” Teja again threatens Luka, but Marta interrupts to inform Teja that the strikers have blocked the street. On his way out to confront them, Teja sees Luka carefully monitoring a hidden recording device, and Teja and Marta’s relationship is further complicated by Jovan, who appears with a gun. Luka uses his authority to call off the protest, hinting at how State Security is not truly reformed if people like him still hold real power.

Luka explains that this is only the second time he saved Teja’s life. The first occurred after Teja’s father’s funeral, when Teja and his friends mourned all night in a kafana where Luka had infiltrated a hunters’ club. Teja drank through the night, and Luka returned his father’s golden ring to him years later. On a train ride home, Luka sat in Teja’s compartment wearing a fake mustache as a sympathetic conductor; Teja left the compartment to use the toilet, and fell from the moving train. Luka stopped the train and carried the unconscious Teja back to safety, fearing that Ana would think he had killed Teja if the worst happened.

Luka reveals that he is now working as a cab driver and that his purpose was simply to ensure Teja would have the four books and a play Teja “wrote”—really a voice recorder Luka carried. He even provides Ana’s number in Canada and begs Teja to tell her they parted as friends. In the director’s cut, it’s suggested that the two men were being watched by State Security all along, adding a final layer of secrecy to Teja’s long, perilous struggle against power, memory, and truth.