Recommend a Movie form Your Country - Monthly

[buah]

Let's try it. Being very interested in world cinema, I'd like to see your recommendations, as well as I'll try to give you an idea of Serbian cinema through its history, from the days it was part of once respectful country Yugoslavia, till present. A movie per month would be enough to start with, I think.

[buah]

So here's my first movie. Although today being known by its world's most recognized director, Emir Kusturica, in Serbia anyone would tell you that the other one should be Srdjan Dragojevic

His movie Pretty Village, Pretty Flame shut in 1996 left nobody indifferent. But, let the others speak instead of me

A MASTERPIECE!, 20 June 2000
10/10
Author: pajcin from America

Being of Serbian heritage, and being born in the U.S.A, I can say that I've seen many films on both sides. America has the Vietnam film, and so a film like THE DEER HUNTER can be said tha it is the best Vietnam film of all time. So, it can be said that Pretty Village... is the best film about the Bosnian war! My family took in a Serbian Soldier that was wonded during that war, lost a leg and eye in battle, and the stories he told are eerily silimar to this film.

I am also a film maker, and I can say that over the many years of seeing brilliant films, this one is one of the best. The film cuts back and forth like a pendulam.... showing us just enough of each character's past to understand why they joined the army... and why they are now starving in a tunnel. The film is heavy on symbolisim... the tunnel represents all that was lost with the break up of Yugoslavia. It represents what ONCE WAS... and now is the setting of a tragic battle.

The film begins with a story about a wedding party that was killed... and yes, its true, a Serbian wedding party was killed before the war broke out... this lead to the bloody conflict. The film captures all the right aspects of the war. It can be said that this film is up there with Emir Kusterica's UNDERGROUND as one of the best films from the former Yugoslavia. Also, not a strange coincedence at the end of the film. This film was shot before the Kosovo conflict... a couple of years before.... but in the end, a image of the tunnel is shown being RE-OPEN! A narrator says that the Tunnel was being re-opened for the international community.... then a man cuts his thumb on the ribbon.... just as he did at the start. The meaning behind this is suppose to indicate that another conflict would errupt in that region! The narrator said the year was 1999. Funny how the film predicted that something would happen that year... which it did: KOSOVO! That is very bizarre!

If you want to see a gripping, and tragic, and painful film... see Pretty Village, Pretty Flame! It is unlike anything you've ever seen!

One of the most powerful war films ever made!, 6 April 2005
10/10
Author: NateManD from Bloomsburg PA

Director Srdjan Dragojevic's Bosnian war film "Pretty Village, Pretty Flame" is an amazing movie about two friends separated by the cost of war. Milan is Serbian, and Halil is Muslim. They are best friends, and we learn much about them through flashbacks in the story. The movie is shown out of sequence, so we see Milan in the hospital, and through the various flashbacks we witness what got him to the hospital. One of the films images which stands out in my mind, is the beginning with the opening of the 1980 peace tunnel. During the celebration the man cuts his finger instead of the ribbon. Then we are forced to move unto the present where peace is far from any mindset. Both friends as children are afraid to go into a tunnel, for they fear an ogre lives in there. All grown up and in the heat of battle, Milan and his squad hide from the Muslims in that particular tunnel, only to be trapped there for days in a grueling stand off between the Serbs and Muslims. They almost become the ogres. Mulan remembers the good times with Halil, before the war broke out. A medical supply truck driven by a recovering junkie gets trapped in the cave also with a female American journalist who is hidden inside. The film is very realistic, but at the same time manages to throw in some dark comedy. Even when Mulan is in the hospital and can hardly move from injuries, he is still hellbent on killing a Bosnian soldier who is in the next room over. All he can think about is his mother and his family who is dead, and his fellow comrade who is almost dead. His other friend, the professor comforts him and tries to convince him that revenge is not worth it. From that point on the film grows more psychologically disturbing. There is so much in this film, that it is hard to describe unless you've seen it or understand the Bosnian conflict. "Pretty Village, Pretty Flame" is far from a typical Hollywood war film. Although the film is told through the view of the Serbian side, No military act is justified. This has to be one of the saddest films I have ever seen. Another image that haunts me even after the film has ended, is the scene where the ground is covered head to toe with dead corpses, including children. Emotional accordion music plays in the background, as the brutal nature of war is shown in a way a Hollywood film would never be able to. "Pretty Village Pretty Flame" is one of the best and underrated war films of all time. See it to remind yourself of how sad and terrible war is. It's a tense dramatic film that stays with you, long after it's over 10/10

Here's also Youtube trailer


Enjoy it, if that could be said for a movie that you'll feel veeery uncomfortable while watching it.

[Zacca]

Never translated into Italian language 

[buah]

Never translated into Italian language  

Too bad, Zacca. And you can't watch it with English subtitles? It's not a hard vocabulary in the script...

[Zacca]

Not for me  my english is very drastic

[Zacca]

For this mounth i racommend to all the new movie of Tornatore.."Baaria".

[buah]

Ah, "good old" Giuseppe... (actually he's only 54, but making movies for over 20 years)
His "Nuovo cinema Paradiso" and "L'uomo delle stelle" are among my favorites of all times! Thanks, Zacca.

This is something I found interesting about this film, behind the scene:

In Italy, the Lega Antivivisezione (an anti-animal cruelty group) has condemned the actual on-screen killing of a cow visible in the Italian trailer. The animal was killed with an iron punch driven in the skull without any pain-relief technique, and then seen bleeding to death while some actors collect and drink its blood.

Such a scene could not have been shot in Italy, because of laws against the unethical treatment of animals in media production. That part of the movie was filmed in Tunisia, where there are no such restrictions.

Thereafter the ENPA (National Association of Animal Protection) demanded the immediate withdrawal of all copies distributed in theatres "to avoid the exposition of minors to such disgusting and fearful images", as the film is rated for an unrestricted audience. Again according to the ENPA, although the scene was filmed in Tunisia thus bypassing the Italian law, after application to the Minister of Justice, the prosecution can still take place in Italy.[5] In October 2009, the ENPA started an international boycott campaign against the film and an online petition asking to revoke the designation of the movie as Italian entry to the Oscars.

Responding to these critics, director Giuseppe Tornatore clarified that the location in Tunisia was not intended to bypass Italian regulations, and that the animal was not specifically killed for the film. The scene was filmed in a local slaughterhouse and the killing was one of the many that take place there every day.

[buah]

April '10

It looked as logical choice to me to recommend another movie by Srdjan Dragojevic. If his previous Pretty Village, Pretty Flame wasn't enough to shock the world, and to face Serbs with the truth, his follow-up The Wounds (Rane) surely was.

If I can't encourage you to see it, let me quote some opinions:

City of God tried to show it as it is in Brazil, but Rane has managed to capture the heart of it all
hardwork-1 (hardwork@xsinet.co.za) from Cape Town, South Africa

Scarface meets Pulp Fiction- a story of upcoming generations

...a cross between "Natural Born Killers" and "Scarface"...
cdoggy99 from USA

It's a well told, thoroughly enjoyable Tour d'anarchy. Gruesome but real. 8.5 / 10.0
Bill Stoll (bill@billstoll.com) from Tampa FL

It would be 10 out of 10 as a gangster movie, yes, but it's 10 out of 10 in many other genres as well.
Weredegu from Hungary

Greatest movie ever made for the ex-Yugoslavia
dreni from Kosova

holly_summer  from Russia

Take 'A Clockwork Orange', add 'Trainspotting', add 'Once Upon a Time in America'... Throw away all the cinema glamour. Add harsh reality. I do not know what you will get as a result and I can't promise you it will be something good. But if you are Srdjan Dragoevic, you will get 'Rane' and it will be breathtaking.

I've watched tons of various movies - & felt like nothing could impress, thrill or shock me - till I've discovered Yugoslavian/postYugoslavian cinema. Black humor. Real passion. Authentic - might be the best definition. The characters are   a l i v e   and you just wonder how the director managed to put so much pieces of real life inside the picture. What other cinema schools tried to achieve through 'experiments' - like Dogma for example - that is to say by inventing boarders, limits & rules for itself - those Yugoslavs did or do by working in often ordinary, may be even classic way - and the main trick is that they seem to have no boarders! The movies I've watched were dark but still they never lacked 'lust for life'. Yugoslavian cinema seems to have national specific but always keeps in mind the best examples of European/American cinema. Almost all listed above refers to `Rane'. Mix 'Trainspotting' with 'Clockwork orange' add a little bit of 'Once upon a time in America' & put it on the streets of Belgrade of the ninetieth...Take two teenagers who do not know any reality except hatred, violence, crime & poverty - and put them inside the story. One of the most bizarre things for me was - how it reminds the Russia of the early ninetieth - rapid inflation, depression & political madness. Two main characters are the guys from my area. It makes me wonder - why former Yugoslavian directors managed to make a number of brilliant movies - trying to explain what is happening - during extremely hard times - while Russia hadn't already produced even a single good & honest movie about what is happening in Chechnya? Well may be one or two but it is still doubtful. That's a shame.

You can find parts, if not the whole movie on youtube, but I'm not recommending you to see it that way.

[nostra]

Oh man, that looks promising indeed. I will try to find this movie.

[buah]

May '10

This time I decided to recommend something completely different. I won't tell you anything about it. I'll only qoute something that  I feel like I wrote it.

I guarantee you'll like it. Trust me, I myself was totally skeptical towards it since I hate sci-fi and futuristic stuff, and it blew me off!
The story is fantastic. 10/10.
The movie is pure eye candy! To Animation/Design/Art I give 10/10.
Music... The main theme is epic! 9/10.

Technotise: Edit & I

Video spot - main theme

Trailer

[Zacca]

For this mounth my best italian movie is La prima cosa bella by Paolo Virzi'
IMO it's a very beautiful comedy-drama movie, but i don't understand if it's a good movie only for italian people(for the memories of 70' 80' italian years)
or for all. I'll wait your comments 

[deazo]

  I have seen this recently:
 
  Les derniers jours du monde 
  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1390405/

  End of the world atmosphere, but viewed from a very different angle than the one we are used to.
  Made me think a lot on the amount of information I am receiving everyday (RSS feeds, blogs, etc.)   and my positioning towards it. What do I really care about?

 It can sound pretentious at times (like many French movies) but still, it is a great film.

 

[buah]

June '10

The Trap (2007)

It's definitely that The Trap was better accepted abroad than in Serbia. Perhaps the film is better received there because we are fed up of these issues and the reality of which we witnessed. Strongly recommended especially for those of you who are parents.

Some reactions

Superb, 18 February 2007
10/10
Author: Paul from Germany


A jewel of a film: the kind that comes perhaps once a year, 13 February 2007
10/10
Author: katchita from Germany


Excellent, very touching in non-pretentious way, 23 November 2007
10/10
Author: daveadams25 from Netherlands


A Great Film, 5 January 2008
10/10
Author: joelhberg from United States


...and the truth taste bitter, 12 January 2008
10/10
Author: Lundegaard-1 from Berlin, Germany


Simply a masterpiece, 28 April 2008
10/10
Author: baituraza from Japan


great film from Serbia, 6 April 2008
9/10
Author: billcr12 from United States


An Intense Psychological Thriller From The Balkans, 19 October 2008
10/10
Author: Seamus2829 from United States


Utterly amazing and horrifying, 26 September 2009
10/10
Author: Michael E. Piston from Mercer Island, WA

Youtube trailer

[buah]

July '10

Cabaret Balkan (1998)

85% Tomatometer

The original title of the movie is "The Powder Keg". And the Balkan it is, that's for sure. If you want to be moved to the core of your being, watch it, and you'll comprehend the original title. Goran Paskaljević, the director, is highly acclaimed European author, especially in France, but not only there. In 2008 his work was subject of retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York for a month.

The best film to come out Yugoslavia in the last 10 years, 14 September 2000
10/10
Author: Alex Zambelli from Seattle, Washington
A great parallel can be made between "Cabaret Balkan" and "A Clockwork Orange". The violence in both movies is not the theme - it's merely an extreme way of proving an important point.

Details are important, 28 August 2001
10/10
Author: henri_aqua from Germany
A masterpiece

This cabaret is the darkest one yet. Not for the faint of heart, but powerful nonetheless., 30 September 2000
Author: (grob248@aol.com) from Los Angeles, USA

the bombs inside of you are gonna explode..., 24 February 2000
9/10
Author: madaisy from Italy

A great movie. Someone should surely dislike it, but surely it will be impressed in your head and heart like the explosion of millions of bombs...a bang in my heart, absolutely stupend and upsetting...the bombs are inside of everyone, ready to explode and destroy your minds and bodies.

unbelievable, 4 March 1999
Author: andres7 from Boston, MA

There are so few movies out there of this caliber.

A devastating but hugely important film, 7 May 1999
10/10
Author: angel-113 from Verona, Italy

Anger and Despair, 12 May 2002
7/10
Author: Madja from Harare, Zimbabwe

Now, few words on other users' comments.

I just can't agree with the users saying that this is about the Serbs, or about the Serbs at that very moment in their history, about the guilt or something else.

I also find it very shallow to think that the movies coming from Serbia should portrait the Serbs the way they are. Movies, as any other form of art are there to show some thoughts, some emotions which the author needs to express. Should we say that 'Clockwork Orange' is a bad movie for portraying Brits in such a way? Or should we think of all Americans as the Dumb and the Dumber?

[buah]

Zacca,

I watched Baaria (Bagheria and it's really amazing how many well known actors took cameos in it. It is really amazing how Tornatore managed to show us urban development of Baaria through the decades. And the feeling I got was that it was so personal movie that means a lot to Tornatore himself. The final scene made me goose bumped.


Deazo,

Is there any chance to find English subtitles for The Last Days of the Earth?
Btw, last night I've seen Je vais bien, ne t'en fais pas, and it blew me away. Must a see!

[deazo]

  I just went to every subtitles source I know and couldn't find any, sorry.
 
  You might want to give it a few weeks and try again?

 

[buah]

Pity... I'll wait, of course. Thanks.

[deazo]

 OK then while you wait, have a go at these three fantastic ones (according to me of course) from France:

  - La graine et le mulet: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0487419/
   
     Subtitles: http://www.opensubtitles.org/en/search/imdbid-487419/sublanguageid-all

  - Qu'un seul tienne et les autres suivront: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1486815/

     Subtitles: ??

  - De battre mon coeur s'est arrete: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411270/

     Subtitles: http://www.opensubtitles.org/en/search/imdbid-411270/sublanguageid-all

Enjoy!

[buah]

  - De battre mon coeur s'est arrete: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411270/

Watched it three days ago! Great movie, although it's a remake of an American movie. I gave it 7.8. Strongly recommended. Romain Duris' great perfomance.

Thanks for other tips.

[deazo]

 Can u give me the name of the american movie please?