Lena Juka Stambuk

While staying at an isolated island resort, James and Em are enjoying a perfect vacation of pristine beaches, exceptional staff, and soaking up the sun. But guided by the seductive and mysterious Gabi, they venture outside the resort grounds and find themselves in a culture filled with violence, hedonism, and untold horror. A tragic accident leaves them facing a zero tolerance policy for crime: either you'll be executed, or, if you’re rich enough to afford it, you can watch yourself die instead.

Spanning decades, the film follows lovers Lovro and Nenad and their friends Stevan and Ivan, a group of gay partisans who fought against the Ustashas and Nazis. Sixteen years later, they became renowned filmmakers navigating life in post-WWII Communist Yugoslavia. As they rise to fame, they are forced to create propaganda for the regime, risking everything to protect their identities and each other. In 1957 their sexual orientation raises suspicion, and a communist party loyalist named Emir is assigned to sabotage their careers and lives, a party loyalist hiding his own secrets, whose loyalties begin to falter. The pursuit of freedom becomes a fight for survival for the artists, while Emir's beliefs are challenged. Lush, intimate, and politically charged (and with startling parallels to our current political climate), Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day is a poignant story of resistance — against oppression, against silence, and for the freedom to live and love without fear.