It is the beginning of the 1st World War. Filip, a principal of a gymnasium in a small Serbian town, is summoned urgently to Belgrade to serve in the war effort. He has no one to leave his wife, Lea, with. She is a young and pretty Slovenian woman, a dance teacher he met while studying in Western Europe. Azem, an illiterate, patriarchal Albanian, the school custodian, gives Filip his word of honor, his "Besa" that he would look after Lea. In the Albanian tradition, when someone gives his "Besa" he must be kept it even if he lose his life in the process. |