Maratonci Trce Pocasni Krug Ceo Film __exclusive__ Jun 2026
Šijan and his screenwriter, Dušan Kovačević (adapting his own stage play), populate the film not with individuals but with grotesque caricatures of Balkan archetypes.
Forty years after its release, Maratonci trče počasni krug remains shockingly relevant. It has become a cultural shorthand in the Balkans for any situation that is hopelessly, violently, and laughably cyclical—from family dinners to national politics. The film’s quotes ("Where’s the coffin?!" "Shut up, you fool!") have entered everyday speech.
Director Slobodan Šijan, a master of the Belgrade "black wave" style, shoots the film like a live-action cartoon. The palette is dominated by the browns of mud, the greys of overcast skies, and the stark black and white of mourning clothes. The camera is often kinetic—swinging wildly with characters’ outbursts, then cutting to static, deadpan shots of absurd tableaus (e.g., two men wrestling inside an open grave). maratonci trce pocasni krug ceo film
But beyond its regional fame, the film stands as a universal masterpiece of tragicomedy. It asks the question: What if Sisyphus was not alone, but had a family—and they were all screaming at each other? The answer is terrifying and hilarious. The marathon never ends. The lap is eternal. And somewhere, the Topalović family is still running, covered in mud, chasing a death that will not come, laughing and crying at the same time.
The final sequence is one of the most powerful in cinema history. After the massacre, the remaining Topalović family members—exhausted, sobbing, but still alive—stand in a circle. On command, they begin to run in place. They run faster and faster, but they do not advance. The camera pulls back to reveal they are running in a muddy, circular track etched into the earth—the "počasni krug" (honorary lap) of the title. The film’s quotes ("Where’s the coffin
The film takes place over roughly 24 hours in a nameless, provincial Serbian town just before World War II. The central location is the Topalović family funeral parlor, a morbidly ironic business run by the patriarch, Pantelija (Mija Aleksić). The family consists of Pantelija’s two quarrelsome sons—Milisav and Mirko—their ne'er-do-well cousin Aksentije, and a revolving door of grandchildren, all named "Maksimilijan" after the grandfather.
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The Marathon Family is not a film you watch. It is a film you survive. And you are better—or at least more honestly cynical—for having done so.
No one learns anything. No one changes. The only movement is lateral or downward.
The "plot" is a Rube Goldberg machine of parricidal impulses. The family’s greatest ambition is to finally bury their aging, tyrannical grandfather (also Pantelija). However, he stubbornly refuses to die. The marathon of the title is not a sporting event but the endless, circular struggle of daily life: getting up, arguing, digging a grave, filling it, fighting over the family coffin (which is kept on a pedestal as a status symbol), and collapsing back into bed. When a rival funeral home, run by the eccentric "Bela" (The White One) and his silent, hulking son, enters the fray, the petty rivalry escalates into a full-scale war of caskets, corpses, and honor.