Yes, I have a penchant for eccentric comedies, so Train Driver’s Diary is right up my alley. Director Miloš Radović’s grandfather was a famous train driver, so he grew up being aware of train driver culture. Part of being a train driver in Serbia is that eventually you will kill people. Not on purpose, of course, but because some people commit suicide by lying on the tracks or their car stalls on the tracks or they think they can cross the tracks before the train comes, etc.
Ilija, a bachelor and third-generation train driver, is coming to the end of his career, during which he has killed 28 people. Along with other train drivers and their families, he lives in a depot community of abandoned railroad cars. When Ilija almost runs over 10-year-old orphaned Sima, who is trying to commit suicide, he saves the boy and adopts him. As Sima grows up, he wants to become a train driver like Uncle Ilija, something Ilija does not want. But Sima is determined and Ilija can’t stop him.
The problem is that Sima is a virgin—no, not that kind (his fellow train drivers take care of that in the traditional way)—but rather because he has never killed anyone. This is so important that when Ilija comes across a man about to kill himself by jumping off a bridge, Ilija offers him 100 Euros to wait one day and lie down on the tracks instead.
Ilija, by the way, is played by Lazar Ristovski, who also played Zarko in On the Other Side.
