The chunky dark framed glasses, held together with electrical tape on one side, give Dado a look of disheveled yet thoughtful erudition. You can almost forget his failure to finish secondary school—and his hardest days living on the street. If you put too much weight on this lack of formal education, however, you’ll be caught off guard by his subtle wit, keen sense of self-irony, and uncanny knowledge of Zagreb’s urban landscape. You’ll never learn more about the city than walking the streets with him as he tears down announcements for religious meetings with the far-right priest, narrates the history of neglected buildings, sabotages billboards, and recalls street fights with Zagreb’s football hooligans and skinheads.

A fixture of the anarchist punk scene in Zagreb since the mid 1990s, and 26 years old when we start filming in 2003, Dado has participated in countless initiatives. This was clear during a recent interrogation that followed his arrest by the police. During his questioning police confronted him with a bulging security dossier. They knew Dado was affiliated with the Antifascist Front, the Zagreb Anarchist Movement, and Food Not Bombs. They knew he played bass in the anarcho-punk band AK47. They even knew he was sleeping with Vanja. At this Dado smiled slyly and noted, “That is not current information, however, and reflects badly on the capabilities of the state security apparatus.” Furthermore, despite all the intelligence gathering, he concluded, “They did not understand anything about my politics.” The detective just kept demanding: “What political party are you affiliated with? Who are your leaders? How many of you are Serbs? What embassy is funding your activities? It was like he thought I was one of those fucking NGOniks!” In fact, Dado is an anarchist. To see this arrest and meet Dado, watch this video. The book’s composite character “Pero” has much in common with Dado.

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