Dalibor Matanic

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A godforsaken mountain village is the only home that a young football player, a miser peasant and a fat girl have. This isolated part of the country finds itself in the middle of the referendum for or against the EU. Our characters couldn’t care less – they are absorbed in their problems. The young football player who accidentally killed his mother doesn’t want to join a rich foreign football team and is willing to risk his father’s love because of it. The lonely fat girl is so desperate for a friend and for a lover that she will end up seeking both in the pig-sty. The miser peasant will find out that the real misery is in loneliness.Read More »

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The tragic life of Slava Raškaj, a turn-of-the-century painter born deaf and mute who is viewed as a kind of Croatian Frida Kahlo, is sketched in “100 Minutes of Glory.” Young helmer Dalibor Matanić (“Fine Dead Girls”) adopts a suitably avant-garde, quasi-surrealist style that injects a large amount of visual interest in this tale of a rebellious-but-doomed woman, while Raškaj’s affair with fellow artist Bela Čikoš structures the narrative nicely. Last half hour, however, spins off in superfluous threads about Čikoš that leave the feeling the film is far too long and cripple things for general audiences.Read More »

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Dalibor Matanic directs the fast-paced Croatian film noir Fine Dead Girls. Looking for a small place to live together, medical student Iva (Olga Pakalovic) and her girlfriend Marija (Nina Violic) move into an apartment building in Zagreb filled with addicts, abusers, prostitutes, and other creepy characters. Landlords Olga (Inge Appelt) and Blaz (Ivica Vidovic) are no more friendly than the rest of their neighbors, and their delinquent son, Daniel (Kresimir Mikic), is overly attracted to Iva despite his homophobia. Eventually, Marija’s intolerant father tries to sabotage the two girls, leading to a violent conclusion.Read More »