Martin in the Clouds

The central character, Martin Barić, is a diligent law student who lives as a tenant in the spacious Zagreb apartment of the Solar couple, positioned on Marulić Square. While Mr. Solar spends four months by the seaside pursuing archaeology and Mrs. Solar basks in the sun, Martin is left to manage a single responsibility: looking after their dog, Cezar. His life is peaceful but tinged with a hint of transience, as he and his girlfriend, Zorica, a fellow student who rents a room across the courtyard, dream of buying a place of their own together.

Into this quiet domestic orbit wanders Martin’s well-meaning but scatterbrained uncle, Vjenceslav Barić. An inventor with a string of odd ideas, he hatches a plan to rent out the empty Solar apartment to an Italian businessman named Carmine Carmine who comes to Zagreb with his daughter, Marcella Marcella. The uncle’s objective isn’t just residency for the Italian guest; he intends to use the rental money as a down payment to buy their own apartment. In addition, he tries to push his inventions onto Carmine and enlists a real estate agent, Richard Eugene Mrazek, to seal the deal. The whole scheme is painted with the allure of quick gains and a taste of independence, wrapped in the familiar hustle of city life.

Martin’s initial hesitation gives way to a pragmatic, if uneasy, agreement. The plan seems straightforward: let Carmine stay, collect the money, and move forward with a purchase. But trouble compounds as the real estate agent proves unreliable, repeatedly failing to deliver the required apartment documents and eventually becoming unreachable. The situation is tense enough to strain friendships and threaten the family’s trust, while Zorica’s reservations grow louder. She dislikes the arrangement, sensing it could spiral into bigger problems, and Carmine’s charming daughter Marcella stirs genuine jealousy in her, adding a personal layer to the mounting complications.

The tension spikes when the Solars announce an early return home due to bad weather in Dalmatia. The revelation hits just as Martin uncovers another, harsher truth: Mrazek has deceived them—and many others—by selling them an apartment on the seventh floor of a building that only has six floors. The discovery casts a shadow over everyone involved and shatters the illusion of a simple, win-win purchase. What began as a hopeful project to secure a future for Martin and Zorica devolves into a tangled web of deception, ambition, and imperfect plans, exposing the fragility of trust in a crowded city where dreams of property collide with the realities of greed and misrepresentation.

Through its living-room comedy and social satire, the story observes the fragile balance between aspiration and honesty. The characters navigate a labyrinth of schemes, loyalties, and longing, all set against Zagreb’s urban rhythm. At its core, the film offers a candid portrait of youth trying to carve out a place to call their own, the generational gap pitting caution against risk, and the crooked paths that sometimes lead to the doorway of a new home.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 10:45