In the Yugoslav war three women from the opposing sides, a Serb, a Croat and a Bosnian, must band together to escape.
Alone and with no military training, they flee Bosnia on foot, horseback and whatever vehicles they can find, battling the armies of all three sides, escaping a besieged city, and ultimately
must reconcile the differences between them.

SYNOPSIS:

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, 1992

Yugoslavia is splitting apart. It was a war on the innocent. A war of neighbour against

neighbour. A war that the world turned its back on.

The Yugoslav war was in some ways unique in its complexity. Three opposing sides,

the Serbs the Croats and the Bosnians. Serb paramilitary forces expelled Croats and

Bosnians from villages. Women were rounded up and taken away in trucks, to be

imprisoned and abused. The capital city was under siege, sniper fire and mortar shells

rain down on the civilians. Refugees raced to the border, from the other side the

impotent United Nations forces and international media watched on.

The Serb, Milanka

Milanka is driven by a primal need to atone for her sin of the past. Her brother

Dalibor is the leader of a vicious paramilitary group, the gang's HQ is a 5 star hotel,

where Bosnian and Croat women are being abused.

As an atypical action protagonist, Milanka is inventive and opportunistic, but also

vulnerable and very flawed. As the story progresses, she must gain Finka and

Samira’s trust while gradually revealing that her past actions have led them to the life

threatening predicament they are now in.

The Bosnian, Samira.

The nearly full term Samira hates all Serbs, and would rather kill herself and her baby

than give an inch to the sister of the bastard who raped her.

The Croat, Finka.

Watching over Samira, this former prosecutor who has had her husband and child

murdered by the Serbs, mistrusts Milanka almost as much as Samira does, but realizes

she needs her help to escape the hotel. From her, Milanka learns the truth of Samira's

baby, that Dalibor is actually her father, and that the women in the hotel are being

raped and then disposed of.

Though Milanka has no military training, her life on the farm and as a thief have

made her resourceful and cool under pressure. She drugs the soldiers stew and steals a

car to help Finka and Samira escape from the hotel, with Dalibor in pursuit.

Finka and Samira, mistrustful of Milanka's motives, wondering if she really wants the

baby, and realizing Dalibor will keep pursuing them, decide to abandon her. Milanka

tracks them to a village where Muslim soldiers have killed all the Serb civilians, and

the women have been re-captured by Dalibor. Milanka uses the atrocity to fool

Dalibor into thinking she has changed sides, he agrees to give her a gun to shoot the

women as revenge, instead she threatens to kill one of his soldiers unless he lets them

go. Though they are able to again flee by vehicle, Samira is wounded, they must take

her to a hospital, entering the besieged capital by driving a car in reverse into the city

moat, while being pinned down by sniper fire. They then scale a bridge to enter the

city.

In continuing their escape they must crawl across a field at night to evade sniper fire,

Milanka gains Finka’s trust by revealing she was abandoned by her mother with her

father eventually killing himself with drink, she became a surrogate parent to her little

brother, Dalibor.

She is still haunted by what her and her brother did before the war. Forming a gang

they robbed and bashed Croats and Muslims, eventually their crimes peaked with the

murder of a Muslim man that they believed their mother left their father for.

Finka and Milanka develop a mutual respect, which enrages Samira, who tries to kill

herself by exposing herself to sniper's, narrowly saved by Milanka.

Finka delivers the ultimatum to Milanka that she must earn enough of Samira's trust

to prevent any further suicide attempts. Milanka must admit . when she heard of the

baby, she thought she could give it the upbringing she missed out on. Samira accepts

that Milanka is not like her brother and promises not to attempt to kill herself again

They resolve to work together to escape the city and try to reach the border.

No one is coming to save them.

In continuing their escape they must crawl across a field at night to evade sniper fire,

then swim under a lake, when Samira runs out of breath, Milanka breathes air into her

lungs and helps her across.

Then Milanka disguises herself as a Croat POW, bravely capturing a sniper's position,

firing upon the other snipers and pinning them down, allowing Finka and Samira to

escape the city border.

They’re getting out, any way they can.

When Samira eventually goes into labor, they take shelter at Milanka's old farm

house, they help her to have a successful birth. They’re she finally admits that it was

her who killed the Muslim man before the war. Dalibor went into prison at only 15,

where he became a hard, cold man, giving him 'permission' to continue murdering

innocents now.

The women split up, Milanka tells Samira she must accept the baby and all that has

happened to her, and unlike her and her brother, let go of the past. Finka and Samira

escape by vehicle, Milanka rides off on horseback as a diversion. But when the

women are surrounded by pursuing vehicles, Milanka rides down a hill and leaps into

their fleeing vehicle. A high speed chase through the forest, with Dalibor and soldiers

pursuing, all the way to the safety of the Serb border. Dodging artillery which takes

out the other pursuing vehicles, they almost make the border, but Dalibor tries to

physically block their leaving, their truck runs him over and they manage to escape.

When the women finally make it to the Serb border, they will be evacuated by

helicopter, they are inundated with questions about the war by international media.

Milanka elects to stay, leaving the baby to Samira, ready to tell the truth of the war

and admit her own culpability.

MILANKA