The Dagger () is a 1999 Serbian war film directed by Miroslav LekiÃÂ. The film was written by Miroslav LekiÃÂ, Slobodan Stanojeviàand Igor BojoviÃÂ. The plot is based on Vuk Draà ¡koviÃÂ's novel of the same name.
Set in the 1960s and observed from the point of view of Alija OsmanoviÃÂ, a young Muslim medical student raised by a single mother, his entire family was slaughtered and his baby brother kidnapped by Chetniks during the Second World War, as the aftermath of a violent family feud between the JugoviÃÂ (Christian) and OsmanoviÃÂ (Muslim) families. He not only learns that the OsmanoviÃÂ family were once a branch of the JugoviÃÂ family who converted to Islam during the Ottoman era, but that, unbeknownst to his mother, he himself was a baby taken from the JugoviÃÂ family, after the massacre on Christmas Eve in 1942. With both families now extinct, and Alija, as the descendant of both, torn between two cultures and two identities, he struggles to maintain his inner peace, desperately searching for his long lost step-brother and fighting the prejudices against the romantic relationship he has with a Serbian classmate.
The film is based on fictive events of World War II and is centered on the atrocious crimes committed during that period, in particular the Jugoviàand Osmanoviàfamilies. According to Vuk Draà ¡koviÃÂ, the original novel is loosely based on the Pridvorica massacre.
In 1999, the film was screened at the 13th Montenegro Film Festival, and gained five featured awards. The film also earned the "Fipresci Award" for Directing, five acting awards in the Nià ¡ Film Festival and the âÂÂCrystal Starâ at the Brussels Film Festival.