KAKO SU ME UKRALI NEMCI
Miša Radivojević, Srbija, 2011.
This project was boiling for 20 years. In the meantime, the country in which a part of the action occurs had disappeared, and no one plays the game of Partisans and Germans any more, at least not the ones that want to join the EU. Radivojević's Šumadija is like the Marquez's Macondo, miracles are possible and always seem innocent. With the maturity of an author who has one of the biggest oeuvres in national cinema, he interweaves time flows for the sake of actualization of the war that turns into a quest for ones identity. Authors duo Cvetković (producer and actor) and Radivojević (director) do not choose easy subjects and in a unique way talk about unscrupulous times, where the transition is only a highway of fierce social crisis. However, this is a unique film for both of them: by stepping outside the trilogy predecessor, they have given us something from their own privacy. Roger Ebert would probably say: ET meets Tarkovsky, and, of course, thumbs up!

Dinko Tucaković

* * *

 

HALT AUF FREIER STRECKE
Andreas Dresen, Germany, 2011.
Even at the Cannes Festival, within the programme “A Certain Point of View”, there was some dignified silence during the projection of the film by Andreas Dresen. For the topic he chose the subject of primordial fear of death which the main character shares with viewers from the very beginning. In a strange way, saying goodbye to life becomes more fulfilling than the life led by the film protagonist Frank, which brings ideas of moral and a philosophical dimension into the film. Although being present in German cinematography for over three decades and visiting regularly the big film festivals, Dresen prefers to act “subversively”, from the background, in “small” films over which he can achieve full control as an author. He is also excellent at giving some difficult topics a dimension of unexpected ease, so I can recommend this film as a story that could be characterized as needless melodrama. Because, where death is – we are not there, (but also) where we are – there is no death. And nobody can stop us on our way.   

Dinko Tucaković

* * *

 

POUPOUPIDOU
Gérald Hustache-Mathieu, France, 2011.
Jean-Luc Godard liked to define film as a “girl+revolver”. When the main protagonist is a blond, convinced that she is a reincarnation of MM, you can forget about the revolver. That diamonds are eternal and that girls prefer diamonds we learned from the film, and from life we learned that they won’t always accept you when you are unique. That’s why this film passes through genre highway from comedy, through melodrama, social drama and mysteries…having always in focus the “oh la la” girl Sophie Quinton, whose mind is constantly spun around by song of the immortal MM: „I wanna be loved by you, nobody else but you... pou... pou.. poupuidou“.

Dinko Tucaković

* * *

ПАНКОТ НЕ Е МРТОВ
Vladimir Blaževski, Macedonia, 2011.
When it first appeared on our territory, almost synchronously with the global scene, it could not be linked with one thing that rock and roll then nurtured – nostalgia. So, punk was not a slap, but a spit in the face of society, the energy that lived for the moment. Punk gave way to a conglomerate of nationalism, primitivism and plutocracy, where young boys and girls realized the hard way that the world does not change with the guitar but with a gun in one’s hand. At least when the war began on my peninsula. Always being a writer of good observation and balanced style, Blaževski manages to, in a simple and effective way, tell the story of an attempt to continue what has been interrupted in the years that the grasshoppers have eaten, and the message "I like that you do not find it enjoyable," grew into "my one and only, my little girl, I love you, I want you "... Punk (ot) is not dead. I hope this film will get a logical back up within Palić’s musical events.

Dinko Tucaković

* * *

 

NAPAPIIRIN SANKARIT
Dome Karukoski, Finnland/ Sweden/ Ireland, 2010.
For someone who was born on Cyprus, whose father is an American actor of the Blue Velvet, mother Finnish journalist, and he himself was a rugby star, still had to exist an ulterior motive for why he took the camera in his hands and recorded a film. In the case of Dome Karukoski there are at least two reasons why he managed to make a positive and good movie. First of all, as an athlete he believes in training. The second and the more important one, he had the ambition to, as he says, "make the audience remain smiling at least seven days after they saw the film". A man whose compatriot is Santa Claus (Father Christmas, as you please) surely knows how to fulfill the desires of the audience.

Dinko Tucaković

* * *

 

MONTEVIDEO, GOD BLESS YOU!
Dragan Bjelogrlić, Serbia, 2010.
To Dragan Bjelogrlić Montevideo, among other things, we owe gratitude for the fact that Serbian cinemas at the moment are not of museum institutions. Through legendary heroes of the most popular game in the world, the audience recognized that what seemed impossible was just at one’s fingerprints. As far as one desired it enough. In the epoch of Novak Đoković we see that he had his predecessors in Tirke and Moša, gentlemen and fighters from the time when football (ball) literally had a soul (which in truth had to be inflated). This film has promoted a new generation of young and talented actors, and only after the festival in Moscow, where the film was also accepted by the audience, began its international promotion, including this screening at Palić outside the competition program. The fact that this successful film will get an extension in the form of yet another film and TV series is the evidence of producer’s vision, but also of something that over half a million spectators expected from the author. Well then, let’s see that Montevideo ... God bless you!

* * *

ELENA / ЕЛЕНА
Andrei Zvyagintsev, Russia, 2010.
Andrej Zvjagincev holds a special status among the Serbian film lovers which is equal to Kim Ki-duk’s. If you are looking for a connection between these two names you can find it solely in the effect of uniqueness you feel after watching their works. Even though they are both favourites of big world festivals, each new film clears path to new ideas and approaches, without spinning in parallel circles of narrative and style. That is how Elena is a bit unusual regarding the choice of theme and protagonist. This year Liv Ulman stated in Berlin that there are no more films which deal with those who entered the golden age of life. This film is critical, but lucid as it treats an ordinary story of dissolution of a family and institutions in a lucid, and why not, a witty manner reminding us that the base of the Civilization we live in was matriarchate.

Dinko Tucaković

* * *

BUNA! CE FACI?
Alexandru Maftei, Romania / Spain / Italy, 2010.
In some happier times, let’s say half a century ago, the space of freedom was carried out and being questioned in the immensity of sexuality. The social and the sociable conflict of our heroes get their last chance the moment when the libido wins the ego and the social discipline. It is refreshing social comedy that gets its extra charm from an unexpected narrator, a teenage son, who brings back the old wisdom that it is still better to make love and not war. In a world where success is measured by the status symbols and likes on the social network, here we have the heroes who discover something that Liverpool’s wise men always claimed: "The best things in life are free". The skeptics will say that the next verse would be: "Then give me the money!”. But after the screening of this film you can, completely relaxed, approach some honey and say, "Hi, how are you?". And the nature will take its course.

Dinko Tucaković

* * *

MADE IN POLAND
Przemyslaw Wojcieszek, Poland, 2010.
This film, with a self-ironic title, deals with the problem of post-transition aspect of one ex-communist country which came back to where it belongs. Not without consequences.
Bogus (Piotr Wawer) is an angry, bitter teenager, until recently a model ''altar boy'' who suddenly realizes that everything around him is ''shit'', so he directs his rebellion against absolutely everything: consumer society, church, army, Russia, America… He articulates his revolt by tattooing an unambiguous message ''Fuck You!'' on his forehead, and ''designed'' like that, with an open skinhead image, he demolishes cars and telephone booths. He gets into a big trouble, and gets beaten badly by a mobster whose car he damaged. Still, Bogus is not alone in this world. He is supported by his (single) mother (Magdalena Kuta-Jastrzebska), who is obsessed with a Polish pop-star from the socialist era, by the classic Freudian ''fathers'' – priests, and by his former teacher, an alcoholic and unsuccessful poet. And there is a girl too, a sister of his new invalid-friend.
The film was made in black-and-white technique with red-coloured animations which, dramaturgically, divide sequences named after songs of bands such as The Clash, Sex Pistols, Massive Attack… The story is set in Wroclaw, and the scenes of this city are, similarly, shot like through a red filter. Gloomy socialist-realism urban landscapes of a city located quite near the Western Europe.

Đorđe Kuburić

* * *

PHNOM PENH LULLABY
Pawel Kloc, Poland, 2010.
The first feature-length documentary by the Polish director Pawel Kloc (1970), successfully shown at several significant festivals (Krakow, Moscow, Sheffield), starts with almost lyrical, carefully combined pictures of Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital. The characters of this noire story are Ilan, an Israeli emigrant, and his Khmer girlfriend Saran. They have two little daughters. Ilan supports his family by tarot fortune-telling in the street. Gradually, Kloc's camera reveals the gloomy existential discourse of this family, which takes place in the streets of a Far East city, together with the ''usual'' disturbing pictures of adolescent prostitution, trafficking, drug addiction, with all those plastic bags and cheap merchandise. And with rats, as a global metaphor. And with drunk tourists craving for obscurity. Kloc records all of that expressively with the raw and cruel view of his grain-like structured hidden camera. The visual character of this film is complemented with the interaction of coloured and black-and-white sequences.
''Phnom Penh Lullaby'' is another warning, despairing urban story, which could happen – and is happening – in any big city. The details are different, but the essence is the same. That is why this documentary, which can be watched as a feature film as well (developed characters and narration), possesses a specific universality.

Đorđe Kuburić

* * *

A ZÖLD SÁRKÁNY GYERMEKEI
Bence Miklauzic, Hungary, 2010.
People used to say that a town isn’t city or a china-town. We almost got the second one. For the first reason some of the mean ones say that Belgrade is a real metropolis just because it has half of a… metro. Maybe it isn’t so funny. Film about strange friendship between Chinese and Hungarian is a story of almost every bigger European city that is quietly invaded by the citizens of most prosperous country in the world at the moment. Two losers make secret alliance and move aside, letting the world, in a crazy acceleration, to hurry into the future. Although it has a strong social component, and consequently belongs to the best tradition of Hungarian cinema, Children ofTthe Green Dragon are primarily devoted to friendship. Which, same as love, isn’t impossible even when everything is against it. 

Dinko Tucaković

* * *

 

FÉE (LA)
Fiona Gordon / Bruno Romy / Dominique Abel, Belgija/ France, 2011.
Le Havre becomes a mythical destination of a good European film. At first Kaurismaki almost triumphed in Cannes, and now Vila is here as one of the most pleasant surprises of this years’ Festival. It is completely out of place to ask you if you believe in fairies, and it may not be politically correct, but this film intelligently and unpretentiously, with light comedy places a social issue-allegation on the map: in modern society, losers can climb the social ladder only with the help of - fairies. And so, a miracle or two happens in the great port of Le Havre. And what we have is the hope that not only screamers of all the mythical creatures remained in Serbia.

Dinko Tucaković

* * *

KOŁYSANKA
Juliusz Machulski, Poland, 2010.
The respectable Polish director Juliusz Machulski has created a likeable horror-comedy, being ironic about this genre pattern and including the saga of the Adams family with which there is a clear interaction. In the picturesque setting of a village people suddenly go missing: a folk artist, a social worker, a postman, a priest, an altar boy… even a TV crew. Circumstances are connected with the bizarre Makarewicz family but the police, conducting the investigation, do not have any evidence. The whole situation indicates rigmarole, but the experienced Machulski tells the story very skillfully. His sophisticated sense of humour controls the rhythm of the film which is conventional (playing it safe to a certain degree) but also masterful and convincing at the same time. In these cases elements of gothic are simply inevitable. Even though The Lullaby starts ominously, very soon we discover its comedy character the refinement of which creates an interesting cinematic experience.
Đorđe Kuburić

* * *

MISHEN
Alexander Zeldovich, Russia, 2011.
Any description of the story of this science fiction film (which is an unusual but dominant qualification of the film whose story is set in the year 2020) would hardly cover the scenario which goes off in the most bizarre directions during its overlong two and a half hours. Some of the narrative and allegorical lines are almost completely superfluous (the parallels with Anna Karenina) while the others astonish us with their visionary quality (the automatic numeric ranking of citizens for the positions in the state hierarchy), grandeur (the Paris-Beijing motorway) and witty sense of humour. Nevertheless, the super-modern production design (as well as set design and costumes) holds the attention of the audience and makes the imperfections of editing and directing bearable. If we insisted on finding a general formula for understanding this extravagant film whose scenario was written by the famous writer Sorokin, it would probably contain a reference to the social context and perverted value systems of the Putin-Medvedev Russia: as a line of interpretation, it is the line of lesser effort, but that does not make it less correct.
Dušan Vasić

* * *

DOM ZLY
Wojciech Smarzowski, Poland, 2009.

The second cinema feature film by the Polish director Wojciech Smarzowski is a dark crime-thriller which merges two stories. (His first film was The Wedding from the year 2004, and before that he made one television series and a film in the same format.) The first story takes place in the autumn of 1978 (when the pope Wojtyla was inaugurated) and the second one in the winter of 1982. A triple rural murder from the first story is connected with the police investigation which follows four years later, in the time of general Jaruzelski and the state of emergency in Poland. Through this double narrative scheme, which Smarzowski follows very consistently, local corruption scandals are gradually uncovered. Combining emotional qualities of his characters with the satirical outline of the political reality, the director created an ultimate psycho-thriller which is considerably related to the famous Fargo by the Coen brothers.
Excellent acting and the expressive photography contribute significantly to the score of positive impressions of this film which has received numerous awards in Poland and was very well received at various film festivals in Europe and the world.
Đorđe Kuburić

* * *

ÇOGUNLUK
Seren Yüce, Turkey, 2010.

Obscene luxury in which our workers in foreign countries tend to celebrate coming of age of their children testifies that it primarily represents crossing over a symbolic threshold, that is, the initiation itself, with the meaning which contains more layers than the administrative context implies (changes of legal and civil status of an individual). However, if an individual does not want to be initiated into the system, the initiation itself is a victimization – and if that system is dominant in its social context, and thus inevitably violent towards those who do not find their place in the system, then its major violence is the internal one, towards its own basis which has to be kept alive and renewed. So, let us say it directly: the context is contemporary Turkey, the system is nationalistic patriarchy, its external victims are women and the Kurds, and the internal ones – Turkish men themselves, or at least those who were not born to be that, and yet have been taught and prepared for that during their whole lives. The director of Majority analyses this problem area from a distance, precisely, being level-headed and meticulous; this film is another proof of maturity and deliberation of the Turkish cinematography.

Dušan Vasić

* * *

QUALUNQUEMENTE
Giulio Manfredonia, Italiy, 2011.

Mr Whatsoeverly – or more in the spirit of Serbian language Give-what-you-can – would surely put down roots and grow in Serbia, as he did in his native Calabria. In that sense, he is more of a twin brother of some Serbian politicians than of the one and only Silvio Berlusconi, strategic partner of our small transition community on its way to the ever further Europe. Still, the extremely talented comedian Antonio Albanese, keeps the picture of Berlusconi somewhere in his subconscious, because it is he who is the creator of Italy in which the ones who are best off are the ones with the vital maxim “give what you can“.
It’s questionable whether it is suitable for a joke to find itself in a serious review, but I cannot resist....It is said that Silvio likes to walk around his house at night totally nude. At his regular tour he always comes over to the fridge to refresh himself. And just as he is standing there naked, while drinking, maybe even milk, his old Sicilian housekeeper screams: “Dio!“ (Oh Lord!). And he responds: “My dear, when we are at home, you can just call me – Silvio!“

Dinko Tucaković

* * *

APFLICKORNA
Lisa Aschan, Sweden, 2011.

It’s not news that the most interesting female authors come from Scandinavia. She Monkeys already have an enviable reputation in being one of the most prominent films of last year’s Tribeca in New York, when Robert De Niro announced the author and the protagonists with carefully chosen words. This is one of the seemingly harmless games with questions like who is the king of the game and who pulls the strings, where puppets often take the leading role. Or, as the Anglo-Saxons would say, the tail starts to spin with the dog, and not the other way around.
A film that leaves no one indifferent, because it does not deal with social but with substantive issues, with deep reviews of the living being, with the particularity that a woman is in focus. Seemingly cold and distant image hides a real volcano of emotions in this larger than life arm lowering, which perhaps started as in Kubrick’s and Clark’s vision – over the battle of some of our ancestors, monkeys, of course.

Dinko Tucaković

 

* * *

PODSLON
Dragomir Šolev, Bulgaria, 2011.

Shelter is basically a film about communication. At first it analyses the discontinuity between two plains: adults (parents) and youth (children, or to be more precise, the son and his friends). Twelve year old Radostin disappeared for two days and came back with «two new friends»: a punk boy and a gothic girl. In a chamber ambiance, across the dining table words are being exchanged, and parents, who were not really involved in parenting expose their pleasant habits and view of the world to new and unpleasant stimuli. A void expands between the father and the mother themselves (and had their communication been synchronized, their explicit and implicit messages to Radostin would have been coherent, and he would perhaps maintain or develop feelings of empathy toward his parents). Finally, quite some space divides the boy from his ad-hoc friends who belong to recognizable and non-conformist subcultures, and somewhat, the streets. This is the geometry the director Sholev used to map his first film.
Using the vocabulary from the previous contemplation, we can say that the issue of communication stands between the direction of the still inexperienced Dragomir Sholev and the screenplay written by Razvan Radulesku, a Romanian, whose hyper-realism is no stranger to the Palić audience since the monumental Death of mister Lazaresku. That is why the film is just like its little antihero: sometimes alive, energetic and defiant, and sometimes frivolous, flippant and stubborn.

Dušan Vasić

 

* * *

THE EXTERNAL WORLD
David O'Reilly, UK, 2010.

On the winds of sudden (o)cult fame, David O'Reiley manages to spread his wings to unsuspected hights in his new ANIMATED creation.
A bit streched in the beginning, EXT WRLD quickly (how else, when it's less than 17 minutes long) grabs the viewers by the brain and squeezes pure acid from their numb brain cells.
It doesn't matter whether the surreal protagonists (ENTITIES) live in nursing homes which turn into aquariums, or are prescribed strangely simple medicines which make them FORGET their worries, or take part in baby toys 'porn, instant sitcom or simply get their supplies of mushrooms from a machine – in the bizarre world of monsters and shit – EVERITHING is possible.
O'Reiley plays with the advancing fear which takes over PEOPLE who don't have classical education, born in the crib of omnipotent presence, raised in the dungeons of INSTANT stimulus.
Hence the BOY plaing the piano. The boy is bullied by the TEACHER. Nevertheless, his beautiful MUSIC attracts all the protagonists of this surreal film and brings them to tears.
Histerical decapitated LAUGHTER in the essential void and nothingness of everyone's EXISTENCE manages to persuade us that NOTHING really exists. That we are ALL but a dreamt pile of  self (pro)claimed SHIT that sometimes becomes inspired.

Zoran Trklja

 

* * *

THE LIGHT THIEF
France/Kyrgyzstan/Germany/Netherlands, 2010

The Light thief (“Mister Light“) is built around the though metaphor of a benevolent electrician in a remote village of Kyrgyzstan who is doing what he can to facilitate for the community the difficult situation with the supply of electricity. Political changes in the country bring in new people and the promise of progress, which in turn degrades into greed, corruption and nepotism. The action occurs in the friction between the local situation inherited from the Soviet times, and a new wider social context.
One part of the plot of this film (the interest of Chinese buyers for the village property) can be more easily understood if one considers that Kyrgyzstan borders with China. By the physiognomy of the characters it is evident that this is a country in the heart of Asia. Why does then The Light Thief open the first side programme of European film festival of European films? It will help to remind ourselves of a Cannes winner, directed by Lars von Trier, where he placed his torturers, hypocrites and martyrs in the farthest Tulu, the small island behind the Scottish coast. The constantly stressed distance means that the right place of the action is not in isolation somewhere in the Atlantic, but on the contrary - it is here, in your backyard, in Vienna, Delft or Copenhagen. Let’s introduce to ourselves Kubat’s film, not only as a European film (which probably was not the intention of the western nations that co-produced it), but as the Balkan film (which might be the idea of the selector), and we will face a related implication.

Dušan Vasić

 

* * *

ALMANYA – WELCOME TO GERMANY (ALMANYA - WILLKOMMEN IN DEUTSCHLAND)
-Yasemin Şamdereli
Germany, 2011, 97min, Letnja pozornica
To be the million and first means to be looking in the backs of the lucky ones fitting under the spotlight of media glory, but when it is happening in Germany after World War II, and you are a Turk from Anatolia, better life is just around the corner. A comedy about a European "melting pot" is an autobiographical story of sisters Şamdereli - Nesrin (screenwriter) and Yasemin (director). Although located in a better past, their reflections on contemporary Germany without the wall are quite clear. As well as on the latent xenophobia presented in the relatively fresh statement of Mrs. Merkel - who the Germans out of mercy call "Mutti" (mother) - that it may not be time for the Union enlargement, especially not with Turkey. Have in mind that one of the best German directors is Fatih Akin!
This nostalgic comedy is an appeal for civilizations to complement each other through their differences and not get in conflicts because of stereotypes and prejudices, or, God forbid, an argument about what is better - sausage or kebab.

* * *

SUICIDE ROOM (SALA SAMOBÓJCÓW) - Jan Komasa
Poland, 2011, 110min, Letnja pozornica

Although at its core it has an old literary idea, launched back in Victorian England, the Polish box-office hit is the ultimate combination of Social Network and Se7en by David Fincher, located in the new European reality of the country in which the traces of the Iron Curtain era had disappeared. Special effects and animation are a very intelligent hook for the audience, to whom Facebook is closer than the nearest family, and the main characters are designed in a gothic manner from the teen hit Twillight. Life in the virtual world can be very difficult, so if anyone knows if there is life outside the Internet, send me a link.
This film is a sign that Poland has a whole new generation of filmmakers, and that the decision for it  to get the "spotlight" this year is a good estimate, because Vajda is probably looking forward to these young people, the same as Serbian veterans should be looking forward to Lezajić, Đordjević and Filipović.