The Red Jacket (Die Rote Jacke) is a 2002 short film (20 minutes) directed by Florian Baxmeyer.
It is set some time in the 1990s. A German man named Walter, seemingly a single father, is expecting his little son coming home. Tragedy strikes however when the boy is struck and killed by a car while crossing the street. The police determine the child's identity via the label on the collar of his red Bayern Munich jacket.
A grieving Walter throws the red jacket into a donation bin. Cut to Bosnia as The Yugoslav Wars rage. The red jacket has been taken to Bosnia with other donated clothing. A Serbian boy named Nikola spots the jacket and takes it. Soon he suffers a terrible tragedy of his own, one which has a surprising outcome.
Tropes:
- Bring My Red Jacket: The unnamed German boy who originally wore the jacket is struck and killed by a car. The Serbian boy who receives it is shot and wounded by the bandits who killed his parents.
- Crapsack World: Bosnia, racked by war in the 1990s, and not just war but bandit thugs of the sort that set fire to Nikola's village and murder his parents.
- Death of a Child: Walter's little boy is killed when he's struck by a car.
- Dies Wide Open: Nikola's parents, lying dead in the courtyard of their farmhouse.
- Downer Beginning: The film opens with Walter's son having been struck and killed by a car.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: As one of the German UN peacekeepers checks out Nikola, his buddy tells him to watch out for booby traps. Moments later a booby trap explodes and severely wounds the soldier.
- Kick the Dog: Well, of course the bandits that killed Nikola's parents also shot his dog.
- Missing Mom: Nothing is seen of the mother of Walter's son. Maybe Walter is divorced.
- Ominous Fog: Nikola's family's farm is wreathed in fog as the UN peacekeeper soldiers search it the morning after the bandits came through. The ominous mood is justified when one of the UN soldiers is grievously wounded by a bomb.
- Plot-Triggering Death: The story is set in motion by the death of Walter's son.
- Precision F-Strike: Nikola runs out of the hospital, then runs into a road, into the path of a car. The German woman slams on her brakes and as a result barely taps Nikola with the front fender of her car. All she can say is "Scheisse!".
- Replacement Goldfish: After Nikola is dropped off at Walter's house, because of the label on the jacket, Walter gives him some breakfast. It seems that the grieving father will take the orphaned boy in.
