In Belgrade, during the mid-1980s, the city confronts its first serial killer: Pera Mitić Taško Načić, an awkward carnations seller who is overweight and still lives with his aging mother. His mother’s punishments for when he cannot sell his flowers—kneeling on nutshells, being slapped, or locked in a water tank—help fuel a dangerous obsession. He begins killing every young woman who refuses to buy his wares, a motive wrapped in a troubling, almost Oedipean dynamic with a mother who wields control in a way that blurs affection and punishment. This dark setup invites a comparison to Norman Bates and the troubled bond that shapes his violent impulses.
After the first murder, Inspector Ognjen Strahinjić Nikola Simić takes the lead on the case. He’s portrayed as a loner who shares his life with a cat named George; a short man with a thin moustache, his demeanor and mannerisms draw a sly parallel to Inspector Clouseau from the Pink Panther films. In a bid to outmaneuver the killer, Strahinjić teams with undercover agent Rodoljub Jovanović Branislav Zeremski, but the plan spirals toward tragedy, heightening the sense of a city under siege.
The plot thickens as Spiridon Kopicl Srđan Šaper, a charismatic rock star, records the song “Bejbi, bejbi” (“Baby, Baby”) with his band VIS Simboli, a track that quickly becomes a nationwide sensation and an eerie anthem for the case. Mitić, stirred by the tune, grows more gleeful and even murders his own mother to ensure he can hear the song on television. With his victim count rising, Kopicl turns his attention to Sofija Mačkić Sonja Savić, the beloved host of a popular musical program on the radio. A violent moment ensues when Sofija, resisting an attempted strangulation, bites Mitić’s ear, a gesture that paradoxically elevates Kopicl to hero status in the public eye and leads to their marriage.
The honeymoon becomes a crucible of obsession. In the film’s climax, Kopicl strangles Sofija while Mitić, dressed as his mother, watches from the shadows. Mitić then re-enters the scene and demands his ear. The pursuit leads to an abandoned building, where after a brutal struggle, Kopicl hangs Mitić—the man who bit his ear.
In the end, the criminal tally is credited to the late Mitić, blanketing responsibility for Sofija’s death as well. Yet Kopicl, his ear still marked, hears a melody that inspires him to compose a symphony rooted in the crime, a work that lingers in his imagination as he endures the death of his father and, in a twist of fate, marries his striking stepmother.
> Bejbi, bejbi
