Set in a decaying Zagreb apartment building, the film follows four neighbors: a homophobic, nationalist policeman; a retired, terminally ill Jewish- Serbian professor; his nurse wife; and a gay, young Croatian assistant. The plot forces these opposites to interact through the professor’s need for help and the policeman’s community service. The title is ironic and devastating: the real constitution—the document guaranteeing rights, dignity, equality, and tolerance—is constantly violated by the very people who claim to defend it. The policeman beats gay people; the professor is attacked for his ethnicity; the nurse is exhausted by patriarchy. Grlić asks: What good is a constitution if citizens refuse to live by it?
Note: Since there is no actual feature film officially titled simply "Ustav Republike Hrvatske" (the famous 2016 film is "Ustav Republike Hrvatske" or "The Constitution"), this review treats the hypothetical or conceptual "whole film" as a documentary or dramatic interpretation of Croatia's highest legal act. For the purpose of this review, I will analyze the 2016 Rajko Grlić film "The Constitution" as the closest realization, and then expand into the idea of a documentary covering the entire constitutional text. When one hears the title "Ustav Republike Hrvatske – Cijeli Film" , expectations immediately split into two camps: the legal scholar expecting a dry, 500-page scrolling text with ambient music, and the cinephile expecting a gripping political drama. The reality—whether in the form of Rajko Grlić's 2016 masterpiece The Constitution or a hypothetical complete documentary—is far more nuanced, provocative, and essential than either group might anticipate. Part 1: The 2016 Film as a Constitutional Fragment First, let’s address the existing elephant in the room: Rajko Grlić’s Ustav Republike Hrvatske (international title: The Constitution ). While not covering the "entire" legal document, this film serves as the most profound cinematic commentary on the spirit, not just the letter, of Croatia’s constitution. ustav republike hrvatske cijeli film
7/10 – Ambitious, necessary, but structurally challenging. Rating for Grlić's existing film (as a constitutional allegory): 10/10 – A timeless European masterpiece about law, love, and the fragile architecture of tolerance. Set in a decaying Zagreb apartment building, the
