A cross between Kafka and Makavejev, this surreal, freewheeling feature debut is produced by the collective Film i Ton, a unique Yugoslav phenomenon heralding the advent of an independent national cinema. Danil Ivanovich Yuvachyev (1906-1942), alias Harms (his pen name), is celebrated as a cult figure in Yugoslav intellectual circles. In 1920s Leningrad, he was one of the signatories of an avant-garde manifesto; he wrote futurist dramas and children's stories, and joined other artists for public readings and exhibitions-until his arrest in 1931... Subsequent arrests and interrogations followed, the last leading to Harms' death in a prison hospital in 1942. In The Harms Case, Slobodan D. Pesic picks up the thread on a summer day in 1938, developing a narrative line out of Harms' own writings (principally Cases). Upon returning to his apartment, Harms discovers people and objects are more unusual and strange than before: an angel hanging out the window; spies and informers all about; absurd things happen that neighbors and acquaintances treat as more or less normal... Filmed in black-and-white, the drab reality of the times is illuminated now and then with the colors hope and dreams are made out of. Ron Holloway, International Film Guide