I'm Croatian and when i first heard what he said i thought it was 'vatra' and i laughed, but then i listened more carfully and it was deffenitely 'atra', which doesn't mean anything.

Likewise, I never heard a 'V' in front, it was quite definitely 'atra'.
Or more accurately, was pronounced with a throat constriction as the 'r', sort of an 'Atkha'.
Sometimes in the later part of the movie it was pronounced with de-emphasis on the latter part of the word, so that it sounded a bit like 'aht', which may have sounded like 'hot'.

Sounded like "atra" to me.

It may hint to the Slavic connection that the traditional open fireplace in Romanian peasants' houses is also called "vatra".

By Polish highlanders you probably mean Belohrvati - White Croats - Croats that stayed when the rest decided to go south. (there was a joke in croatia that the pope is croatian, since he's from somewhere around Krakow)
They got assimilated somewhere around 11.-12- century.
Mor

It's probably a very old Indo-European word for fire, it's common for a few nations and ethnic groups like Iranians and Slavs. "Watra" (pronounced the same as vatra) is still used by Polish highlanders but it's like that in whole Carpatia mountains region afaik.

If I recall correctly, the word is something akin to "atra". It's connected to the latin "astra", which comes from indo-european roots (probably 3000 BC or older). It's an ancient word, but hardly as old as this story though

Doesn't the man staring into the flames in one scene say "Hot"?

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