Sanela, a Montenegrin of Muslim background who left the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s after her father was kidnapped and killed alongside other Muslims, comes back to the Balkans after twenty years abroad. She has betrayed her origins, erased her own culture, and become a true Westerner. They say the past is a foreign land and that the one who departs and the one who returns are not the same person.
In the early '90s, the Yugoslavian Government cancelled the autonomy of Kosovo, dissolved its Parliament and closed down the National Television. All institutional life was reorganized by the new authorities, while the majority of the citizens responded with peaceful demonstrations. During this terrible time, Fadili, who works as an archivist, has to choose between two options, knowing that both of them are wrong. He therefore involuntarily and unwillingly "swallows" the shame, endures the pressure bearing down from all sides and puts up with the bad reputation for only one reason: to provide for his family.
Hana, a shy sweet sixteen, is secretly in love with Mario, a schoolmate and half of popular youtube duo Luka & Mario. Hana observes the shoot in which Luka accidentally hurts Mario. Hana helps Mario with the wound, and gets invited to go with him and Luka to a lake where they will shoot a solar eclipse tomorrow.
The year is 37 BC. A young Liburnian Volsus is taken by a Roman unit to help in what at first seems a simple task of collecting taxes, but the encounters with local Illyrian tribes soon lead to unexpected turns of events, as they show more resilience to subjugation than meets the eye. We see their archaic, emotional world of quaint and brutal laws and traditions through the eyes of this youngster, regarded by the Romans as a primitive barbarian, and gradually come to understand that their world is not all that different from our own.
The story takes place in March 1999, Kosovo. It is the period of NATO bombing. Massive displacement of Albanians on ethnic basis. Terror, fear, insecurity and hunger have plagued the town of Gjakova.
