We Are Not Angels · reception & legacy
1992 · Srđan Dragojević
How We Are Not Angels has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
A smash hit in 1992 Belgrade — escapist froth landing just as Yugoslavia fell apart and UN sanctions cut cinemas off from Hollywood — it has since settled into beloved ex-Yu cult classic status, its glow only heightened by the two 2000s sequels widely seen as inferior.
What's debated
The perennial ex-Yu debate: is it a genuinely sharp pop comedy or pure sanctions-era nostalgia — and how do you square its sunny irreverence with the war raging just offscreen when it premiered?
Its footprint
Endlessly quoted across the former Yugoslavia and credited with kickstarting the whole 'Serbian gag film' comedy wave of the 90s and 2000s; for a generation of Serbian viewers it's shorthand for early-90s Belgrade youth culture.
Where it stands
A cornerstone of ex-Yugoslav cult cinema — near-universally seen in the region, barely known outside it — and the frothy debut cinephiles cite in disbelief that the same director made Pretty Village, Pretty Flame four years later.