User Reviews

Nothing will ever compare to this masterpiece. A unique story with unique Montenegrin humor. 10

This is a great Yugoslav comedy that achieved and retained a cult status in all the countries that succeeded it, because of its wit "in the raw". The story starts on a simple premise: in a remote and isolated Montenegrian village, a family of humble peasants decides to write a letter to their son who went across the world, as far as Munich.

Of course, pater familiars Radosav runs the show. Of course, he may well dictate the letter as he dictates many other family decisions, but only the youngest lass in the house, Milijana can actually write it, being only literate person in the family. The letter takes hilarious turns, from Aesopian advice to son in foreign, enemy land, to explicit veterinarian references about family cows and their health.

So the letters to a distant émigré son Misho become a glue that keeps family (and the show) together... The series were based on double premise of exploiting the existing stereotypes about Montenegrians (lazy, backward...) and turning them upside down at times. Since Montenegrins have been a staple ingredient for gazillion of Yugoslav jokes, the series were readily accepted across the former federation, and watched without prejudice.

Some Montenegrins, however, felt offended by often brutally honest and sometimes slightly degrading portrayal of their mentality in the series. As it often happens with ethnic joke projects, the answer to such criticism is, that the authors themselves have been Montenegrians, among the few witty enough to make and take a joke at their own expense... Fun to watch, but a lot of its humor is derived from cultural and linguistic context.