When I Am Dead and White 1967

Džimi Barka Dragoslav ‘Dragan’ Nikolić finds himself at a crossroads after leaving his seasonal job, this time with his girlfriend Ljilja by his side. With no steady work in sight, his mother, a poor washerwoman, cannot lend a hand, and the doors of factories and firms stay stubbornly closed. In a desperate bid to make ends meet, he slips into theft, pilfering from workers at a construction site. When a frantic escape leaves Ljilja behind, Jimmy begins a long, uneasy odyssey that will test his resilience and shape the man he becomes.

Along the road, he encounters Duška [Ružica Sokić], a bar singer, and their path quickly becomes tangled as she becomes both lover and mentor. He learns to sing on the fly, and even though his voice is far from polished, his hunger for movement and change propels him forward. From crowded towns to quiet fairs and distant garrisons, Jimmy travels as a roaming performer, chasing the idea that singing could open doors, even as reality keeps delivering its own hard lessons. The journey is not just about music; it’s about survival, identity, and the fragile hopes that keep pushing a restless soul onward.

In a small town, he crosses paths with Bojana [Zorica Šumadinac], a dental technician, and the two strike a complicated alliance that sends them to Belgrade to compete in a youth singing competition. The reception is harsh—booed and jeered instead of welcomed—so Jimmy slips away, boarding a ship with a growing sense of disillusion. There, Ljilja reappears, living on the edge by pickpocketing and feigning pregnancy, keeping her options open as they drift back into the old patterns of bluff and risk.

A plan to leverage Milutin, the former construction site manager, unfolds as they confront him with a ruse: he is allegedly responsible for a child with Ljilja. Milutin discovers the deception, and the tension explodes. He moves to assault Ljilja in front of the workers, but Jimmy intervenes to stop him. The confrontation ends in tragedy when Milutin, humiliated and enraged, pulls his rifle and kills Jimmy, sealing a brutal turn in this hard-edged tale of ambition, luck, and the costs of chasing a dream on the margins of society.