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A MASTERPIECE!, 20 June 200010/10Author: pajcin from AmericaBeing 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 200510/10Author: NateManD from Bloomsburg PADirector 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
Never translated into Italian language
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.
City of God tried to show it as it is in Brazil, but Rane has managed to capture the heart of it allhardwork-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-Yugoslaviadreni from Kosova
holly_summer from RussiaTake '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.
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.
Superb, 18 February 200710/10Author: Paul from GermanyA jewel of a film: the kind that comes perhaps once a year, 13 February 200710/10Author: katchita from GermanyExcellent, very touching in non-pretentious way, 23 November 200710/10Author: daveadams25 from NetherlandsA Great Film, 5 January 200810/10Author: joelhberg from United States...and the truth taste bitter, 12 January 200810/10Author: Lundegaard-1 from Berlin, GermanySimply a masterpiece, 28 April 200810/10Author: baituraza from Japangreat film from Serbia, 6 April 20089/10Author: billcr12 from United StatesAn Intense Psychological Thriller From The Balkans, 19 October 200810/10Author: Seamus2829 from United StatesUtterly amazing and horrifying, 26 September 200910/10Author: Michael E. Piston from Mercer Island, WA
The best film to come out Yugoslavia in the last 10 years, 14 September 200010/10Author: Alex Zambelli from Seattle, WashingtonA 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 200110/10Author: henri_aqua from GermanyA masterpiece
This cabaret is the darkest one yet. Not for the faint of heart, but powerful nonetheless., 30 September 2000Author: (grob248@aol.com) from Los Angeles, USA
the bombs inside of you are gonna explode..., 24 February 20009/10Author: madaisy from ItalyA 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 1999Author: andres7 from Boston, MAThere are so few movies out there of this caliber.
A devastating but hugely important film, 7 May 199910/10Author: angel-113 from Verona, Italy
Anger and Despair, 12 May 20027/10Author: Madja from Harare, ZimbabweNow, 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?
- De battre mon coeur s'est arrete: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411270/
