Last week, I was invited to the SONY Studios to see a new film from Montenegro – Nikola Vukčević’s Obraz (English, Tower of Strength, 2024) – which happens to be Montenegro’s submission for Best International Feature Film at the 2026 Oscars. The script was inspired by an anthology story by academician Zuvdija Hodžić; the screenplay written by written by Ana Vujadinović and Melina Pota Koljević, with assistance from director Vukčević. The story takes place in the period of the Second World War during which, in 36 hours of action, a persecuted child, trying to save himself from the fascist paramilitary unit that killed his parents and burned the village, finds refuge in the house of the Albanian Nur Doka. The film’s title Obraz in Serbian means face or cheek, as well as character.
At the screening of Obraz, director Vukčević talked about the long 8-year journey through COVID to make and complete this historically-set drama. His extensive research into the minority population of Albanian Muslims living in southern Montenegro resulted in a film of cinematographic beauty and careful attention to the details of life and Muslim values among Albanians in 1940. Vukčević wanted to make a film with universal appeal that could relate to moral decision in any part of the world. The film evokes the traditional genres of a war movie and a “Western” (which he refers to – in a Balkan sense – as an “Eastern”), without ever over-using the genre approach to the detriment of the drama at the film’s core.
The story follows a Christian Montenegrin child, who escapes an Albanian SS division attack that destroyed his village and killed his parents, and a Muslim Albanian stranger, Nuredin Doka, with whom he takes shelter. In the film, Nuredin Doka, is a local hero as the former flag-bearer for the Army of Montenegro during World War I when Montenegro was allied with Serbia against the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Nuredin Doka is a respected community member in his predominantly Albanian Muslim village. As the master of the house, he has to face a moral dilemma: Either to hand over a Serbian Christian child to his persecutors (and thus trample on the age-old code of his people and personal beliefs) or to risk the lives of his entire family protecting that unknown child (which gives this dilemma the space of tragedy). In the director’s words: “Through the story of moral values, promise, love and growing up, the film examines the price of individual human sacrifice, going beyond questions of religion and nation, wondering how Nur will respond to this challenge.”
A brief prologue, unfolding in the 1930s, establishes the complex rules of honor governing relations between Albanian clans as the Gjonaj household offers a newborn baby boy to the Doka family to end a blood feud. Instead of taking the infant’s life, WWI hero Nuredin Doka (Edon Rizvanolli) choses to raise him as his own (and only) son.
Skipping ahead a decade, that child is now Mehmet (Elez Adzović), an impulsive youth, so over-eager to absorb the lessons of his widely respected father that he often acts without thinking. Indeed, it’s his impetuousness that sets in motion the central predicament: When Mehmet sees a boy about his age (Vuk Bulajić) fleeing a bloodthirsty paramilitary gang, he beckons him inside the Doka compound.
The boy in question is a Christian whose parents have been brutally murdered by the soldiers, part of the infamous Skanderbeg unit of the Waffen SS. These ill-disciplined Albanian men surround the Doka home, demanding the child’s life too. But Nuredin’s honor and empathy prevent him from turning the frightened child over to the gang, bound as he is by ancient traditions of hospitality, even though he understands that this decision is likely to put his family at risk. His elderly father (Selman Jusufi) supports him, noting, “Allah sent this child to test us. In times of war, it is easy to become less than an honorable man.”
Seeing that there is no way to appease the soldiers, who are egged on by the vile rapist Abid (Aleksandar Radulović) despite the attempts of Mark Gjonaj (Alban Ukaj) to de-escalate the situation, Nuredin plays for time, demanding to see their commander (Branimir Popović). After the commander confirms Nuredin’s worst fears, he calls on a local judge (Nikola Ristanovski) for advice, but the wise man’s careful reasoning of the options leaves him with little hope.
Given that this story of honor takes place in a patriarchal society with the female characters largely relegated to the sidelines, the screenwriters (who are both women) give Nuredin’s wife (Xhejlane Terbunja) a few lines telling lines. She notes how difficult it is to be his spouse, especially when a woman’s instinct is to preserve her children at all costs.
The history of the small country of Montenegro is central to the story: Situated in the mountainous region of the Balkans north of Albania and west of Serbia, Montenegro was under Ottoman control for centuries. Around 75% of Montenegro’s population is Christian, predominantly Eastern Orthodox (about 71%), with smaller Catholic and other Christian groups, according to recent data, reflecting a strong link between Orthodoxy, ethnic Serbs, and Montenegrins. However, the southern regions of Montenegro adjoining Albania have traditionally had sizeable Albanian Muslim populations, similar to parts of Kosovo.
Prior to World War II, Fascist Italy under Mussolini invaded Albania and installed a puppet government and Albania was controlled by Italy as a protectorate from 1939 to 1943, when Italy capitulated to the Allies in September 1943 and Nazi Germany quickly occupied Albania to prevent the Allies from gaining a foothold in the Balkans. The 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian) was a German mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS. The division was developed around the nucleus of an ethnic Albanian battalion which had briefly seen combat against the Yugoslav Partisans in eastern Bosnia as part of the13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian).
Composed of Albanians with mostly German and Yugoslav Volksdeutsche (ethnic German) officers and non-commissioned officers, it was given the title Skanderbeg after medieval Albanian lord George Kastrioti Skanderbeg, who defended the region of Albania against the Ottoman Empire for more than two decades in the 15th century. This group roamed the countryside of southern Montenegro between 1943 and 1945 fighting on behalf of the Nazi Germans. They were highly partisan in protecting Albanian Muslims in Montenegro and persecuted Christian Bosnian and Serbian villagers in the region. Skanderbeg never reached divisional strength, being at most a brigade-sized formation of between 6,000 and 6,500 troops. In May 1944, members of the division arrested 281 Jews in Pristina and handed them over to the Germans. The division itself was better known for this action and for murdering, raping, and looting in predominantly Serb areas than for participating in combat operations on behalf of the German war effort.
The division’s identification symbol was the Albanian double-headed eagle. Despite its short existence, a collar patch depicting a goat-crested helmet was manufactured for the division but there is no evidence that it was ever used. Members of the cadre staff were photographed wearing an Albanian arm shield depicting a black Albanian double-headed eagle on a red field. Many of the division’s Muslim members wore traditional grey-colored skull caps instead of the standard SS field cap. Others wore the traditional Albanian highlander hat, the Qeleshe.
Albanian partisan forces, primarily led by the Communists under Enver Hoxha, successfully liberated the country of Albania from German occupation in November 1944. But partisan rebel groups in the mountains continued to fight until the end of World War II. This messy situation is the historical background of the film Obraz.
Marking the third directorial outing of Vukčević (The Children of Marx and Engels Street), Obraz or Tower of Strength is particularly notable for its high production values. The agile cinematography of Djordje Stojiljković is equally comfortable in capturing the rugged landscapes and in closeups of the characters’ faces. The striking period costumes are clearly accurate copies of ones that can be seen in old photographs during the closing credits. The film was shot in Montenegro on locations in Stari Bar, Crmnica, the slopes of Kuča, and the rugged Mrtvice canyon near Montenegro’s capital of Podgorica. Obraz has been selected as one of 30 international films that will screen in January 2026 at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
