This movie is a story of five extraordinary British women who stubbornly maintain that they are just ordinary women who simply fell in love.
The documentary traces the unique experience of the ‘fabulous five’ who left the UK between the 60’s and 80’s to live in what was then Yugoslavia. Their encounters with a different culture, different customs and a different language are permeated with emotion, humour, resilience and loyalty. Their moving journey, often filled with high drama, spans the Communist period, Tito’s death in 1980, Yugoslavia’s gradual economic and political collapse, the 1991-1996 war and UN sanctions with all the resulting shortages, culminating in 1999 NATO bombing, the overthrow of Milosevic and the advent of democracy in Serbia in 2000 right up to the present day.
All well-educated women Anna, Francesca, Sheila K, Sheila S and Valerie managed to retain a very British sense of humour even when times were hard as they doggedly stood by their husbands, children, grandchildren, other family members, neighbours, and many friends in their adopted country while it steadily fell apart.
The tale of these five (extra) ordinary women – themselves representative of many others – will make you laugh and cry. The film highlights the happiness and problems associated with all mixed marriages anywhere in the world and presents a very different image of Serbia than that generally on view.
To watch the movie: