Synopsis

After his mother’s and brother’s untimely death, Vele is left to live with his father Szado in Skopje, who is terminally ill with lung cancer. Vele is desperate for a cure, but the medication is too expensive. He is a railway mechanic and has been assigned with his colleagues to help the police in finding drugs smuggled within the trains. One day, Vele does indeed find a package of marijuana, which he chooses to keep for himself. After doing some Internet research, he finds a recipe for a ‘space cake’ and decides to bake it for his father. Alas, Sazdo’s condition improves; his doctor goes even as far as to call it a miracle. Even Szado’s neighbour Tode recovers from his rheumatism. Both men turn the apartment upside down in search of the mysterious recipe – but this is not Vele’s only problem. His cake is now rumoured to be a sort of miracle cure, and he has drug dealers feeling cheated at his heels. Gjorce Stavreski’s feature film is an enjoyable comedy with rather dark undertones, showing how, whilst the government builds over-the-top buildings, medical aid in crisis-stricken Macedonia is severely lacking. The father-son relationship is, too, not without its own ups and downs, as Vele constantly feels to be in his late brother’s shadow, who managed to obtain a university degree. A grand debut.