Skinning 2010

The film opens with authentic news footage showing protests outside the American embassy in Belgrade, sparked by the Kosovo declaration of independence. This footage is intercut with scenes of the film’s central figure, skinhead Novica, who leads chants and lights flares in front of the embassy, all while providing narration that frames the story to come.

The narrative then rewinds to introduce [Novica], a shy, math-obsessed high school student whose world centers on advanced math classes for gifted kids and intense math competitions. Dressed in frumpy clothes and with messy, thick hair, he lives in a city where social life is sparse. His only real companions are his stoner cousin and a more nerdy math colleague, Stanislav, highlighting his awkwardness in social settings.

At a high-stakes math competition, Relja — a swaggering skinhead who also shines in math but lacks [Novica]’s problem-solving depth — pressures him to cheat. Relja sits close and solitarily struggles with a problem, and when [Novica] passes along the solution, the supervisor admonishes him. To shield Relja, [Novica] wrongly blames the quiet [Stanislav], and both are expelled, breaking a promise of leniency and exposing the moral tension at the heart of the story.

Outside the competition, [Relja] is impressed by [Novica]’s composure under pressure and offers him a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf along with an invitation to a lecture by Profesor Hadži-Tankosić at the University of Belgrade. Novica brings his cousin Mirko; Mirko, uneasy with the professor’s ominous, anti-Semitic undertones, leaves early, while Novica remains—drawn to the ideas being discussed.

A few days later, [Relja] takes [Novica] to a football match, where skinheads rally around FK Radnik — a club connected to a ruthless financier known as Pufta. The crowd’s so‑called loyalty masks a web of intimidation, violence, and opportunistic finance. The group’s antagonism with Pufta’s rivals, including a mafia-linked club, deepens the atmosphere of danger surrounding them. At the match, the boys are questioned by the city’s police, including Inspektor Milutin and the idealistic young Inspektorka Lidija. Lidija senses that [Novica] is not the typical skinhead and offers a lifeline, giving him her number in case he needs help.

A few days later, [Relja] introduces [Novica] to the wider circle of his skinhead crew: his glamorous girlfriend Mina and the tech-savvy Svarog. They all gather in a dim, underground space swastika-adorned with beer and heavy music from bands like Direktori, where Novica finds himself drawn deeper into the world his new companions inhabit.

Novica already shares a past connection with [Mina], whom he once encountered near their neighborhood after a violent run‑in with Pufta’s faction. The encounter blooms into a complicated attraction, and Mina’s allure marks a pivotal moment as she seduces him, signaling his initiation into the racist skinhead milieu.

One night, while roaming along the river quay under the influence, the group crosses paths with a lone member of the rival diesel faction who is Romani. Although Relja urges restraint, [Novica] steps forward, driven by a mix of bravado and loyalty to his new circle. He confronts and beats the man, and the others pull him back as the situation spirals. In the chaos that follows, [Novica] grabs a construction block and commits a brutal killing, throwing the body into the river with rocks to bury the crime.

This act becomes a brutal turning point, revealing how quickly [Novica] has slipped from a cautious, awkward student into a participant in deadly violence, anchored by his ties to [Relja], [Mina], and the entire underground scene that thrives on fear and extremist rhetoric. The film continues to trace the consequences of this escalation, the pressures from peers and the authorities, and the blurred lines between belief, identity, and coercion in a city wrestling with its own troubled history.