Man Is Not a Bird

Skilled engineer Jan Rudinski arrives in a quiet town to install heavy mining equipment, and his presence stirs two intertwined stories that blend work, desire, and small-town tensions. While getting a haircut in a local barbershop, he asks the pretty blonde hairdresser Rajka if she knows of a spare room, and she helps him find a place to stay in her parents’ home. A tentative spark quickly grows as she begins to flirt with him, even as she gently fends off the persistent, handsome young truck driver Boško. The contrast between their ages and life stages adds a quiet tension to their budding relationship, and the town’s humdrum routines begin to tilt around the edges of their secret liaison.

In a separate thread, mine worker Barbulović keeps finding himself in one bind after another. A bar brawl spirals out of control, and a singer named Fatima is stabbed in the ensuing chaos. Barbulović is arrested but released after a few days, grumbling about docked pay and the lack of sympathy from his manager. When his wife Eva Ras returns home from a visit, she discovers three dresses missing from their house. She suspects Barbulović of giving them to a mistress, and the suspicion deepens when she spots the other woman wearing one of the dresses at the market. A confrontation follows, and the two women clash before the authorities intervene. They are briefly taken to the police station, but released with some admonitions and advice, leaving the matter unresolved but simmering beneath the surface.

With her parents away for a spell, Rajka invites Jan Rudinski to sleep with her. The middle-aged engineer wrestles with the idea, mindful of the age gap between them, but he eventually agrees, and the pair find a measure of happiness in each other’s company. Jan’s weeks of solid work begin to wind down, and the prospect of leaving town looms as the plant nears completion for a major export deal. When the job is finished a little ahead of schedule, a Belgrade government representative arrives to honor Jan with a medal for decades of exemplary service. Yet the celebration feels hollow to him, because Rajka is noticeably absent from the concert and banquet that accompany the ceremony.

The truth surfaces gradually: Rajka has fallen under the spell of the truck driver, the young man who had previously teased and flirted with her. After the medal ceremony, Jan seeks her out and asks if there is another lover in her life. She dodges the question, and when he presses further about the man’s age, she replies that he is around twenty or twenty-two. She insists that age difference does not affect their relationship, but the revelation does little to ease Jan’s growing anger or his sense of betrayal, and he finally confronts the fact that Rajka has chosen to pursue another connection. Unable to reconcile, she leaves, leaving Jan to face the consequences of love, longing, and the uncertain future that awaits him when the plant moves on.

Throughout these intertwined stories, the town’s routines continue to hum, even as personal loyalties shift and fragile affections are tested. The film threads together ambition, desire, and the complexity of ordinary life, inviting audiences to observe how quickly plans can unravel and how fragile trust can be when old habits meet new temptations. The performances anchor the tale, balancing humor, heat, and hurt as lives brush up against each other in a place where work and love both demand everything. In the end, the characters must reckon with what they want, what they owe to others, and what a changing world may demand from them next. In these quiet moments, the movie offers a thoughtful, human look at choice, consequence, and the stubborn persistence of hope.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 09:27