An unbearable stench makes quite wide confusion among the residents of Belgrade. The microbiologist Pavle can not remember immediately where he smelled it, but recalls the event he witnessed as a child and the smell of a burning human. A visit to the crematorium gives him the assurance: The high number of suicides in the city has meant that the ovens are in continuous operation and will probably stay that way - because the stench is slowly making other people commit suicide, too.
A group of WW2 orphans, now young people in their late teens, find out that one of them is a child of a war criminal. They are determined to discover his identity, even though this person could be any of them.
Italian director Giueseppe DeSantis was the creative force behind this Yugoslavian "slice of life" drama. The title translates as The Year-Long Road; accordingly, the plot concerns a joint, voluntary effort between Italy and Yugoslavia to construct a highway along the countries' Naturally, this animosity wreaks havoc on the various Romeo-Juliet romances in the region. All is resolved when oil is discovered on one of the islands. An American oil company is finally able to establish détente between the warring factions, smoothing the path for the long-delayed marriages of three young couples.
Celebrating the end of World War II and liberation of their city, a group of students is set on holding a cultural evening. They invite Ema, a reclusive piano teacher from the same building, to play for them. Ema declines, but starts reminscing back on her own life and the historical events that have seemingly overshadowed it.
Burdened with prejudices, Haji-Toma kills his son who wants to marry a beautiful Gypsy girl Koštana, who is then forced to marry the man she's not in love with.
The plot takes place during the Civil War in Greece, and it shows the fight of communist partisans, against the pro-Western, monarchist government. During the shooting, there was a discord between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union because of the famous IB resolution, which caused Yugoslav authorities to stop supporting Stalinists. Tito's government acknowledged Greek monarchists as a legitimate government, and not wanting to remind the public of their ideological discrepancy, bunkered "Majka Katina" for a few decades.
