The Third Key (Treći ključ) is a 1983 Croatian film directed by Zoran Tadić, starring Božidar Alić and Vedrana Međimorec.
After moving in, Dunja and Zvonko soon begin noticing suspicious strangers in the vicinity, and mysterious envelopes with substantial amounts of cash start to appear in their mailbox.
This ultimately cost him the lead role in Love Letters with Intent (1985), as Zvonimir Berković – upon hearing from the crew of The Third Key that Alić was impossible to work with – passed him over in favor of Zlatko Vitez.
The protagonists "become insignificant individuals due to societal, economic, as well as political determinants, which entails their position of alienation, marginalization, or even apostasy".
In Čegir's view, these themes also hinted at the actual reality of disarray which was corroding the Yugoslav society in the 1980s, eventually leading to the breakup of the country.
The two protagonists attempt to find a new way of living in order to extract themselves from their background, but the metaphorical inevitability of fate prevents them from doing so, and by the time they realize they are unable to change it, it is already too late.
[9] While The Third Key is generally considered to fall short of the high standard set by Rhythm of a Crime, it is nevertheless deemed interesting for its genre approach and topic which were novel in Croatian and Yugoslav cinema of the era.