The Red Jacket (2002)

Starting at the scene of a road traffic accident, we quickly discover that a man's Bayern Munich loving son has been the victim and that a father (Ulrich Noethen) is devasted. They had identified the lad by the name tag in his team jacket, but the man cannot bear to possess that any longer so he gives it to the Red Cross. They ship it off to war-torn Sarajevo where it is espied by a young urchin (Nikola Jankovic) who pinches it and takes it back to his home. There, though, he discovers that his parents have been slaughtered and where he is left for dead by their killers in the burning ruins of their booby-trapped house. Fortunately for him, an UN squad arrives and thanks to a kindly soldier who wants to help him out he is airlifted to hospital in Germany and awakens in a bed. First thing he sees is his top and so donning that he makes for the exit. With no idea where he is, or where he's going, he wanders out into the street and into the path of a Mercedes whose panic-striken driver sees he name tag and returns the jumper to it's original owner - complete with a new boy! What might the father do? Now the first thing I thought was that as talisman's go, this is one to be avoided. Aside from the fact that any football top is as likely to engender hatred from others as it is support, this one seems particularly attached to disaster and perhaps ought just to go in a bonfire as it leaves it's trail of death and destruction behind it. There is, however, a message of hope amidst this decently constructed and photographed drama that is effectively epitomised by the effort from the engaging young Jankovic. With barely any dialogue and now in a strange home with a strange man speaking in a strange language, might serendipity finally have taken an hand for the better?