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A fugitive girl, a stuntman and a young man who lost his dog quite some time before, are joining together on a trip to reach each of their own destination. A youngster gets emotionally connected to the girl, and he’d try to help her to leave the bossy stuntman, to get false passport and escape to Paris.Read More »
Synopsis:
The story takes place in Yugoslavia at the end of the 19th century, in an isolated village near the Adriatic sea. Because of the extreme patriarchal culture there is a superstition that families without male heirs are cursed. When the wife of a farmer gives birth to their fourth daughter, father decides that the child will be brought up to become a so-called “Virgina” and that she will live as a man, so that she can work and be the family heir. This heartbreaking story of Virginas life is told with strong words, augmented with harsh inviroment.Read More »
The story takes place in Yugoslavia at the end of the 19th century, in an isolated village near the Adriatic sea. Because of the extreme patriarchal culture there is a superstition that families without male heirs are cursed. When the wife of a farmer gives birth to their fourth daughter, father decides that the child will be brought up to become a so-called “Virgina” and that she will live as a man, so that she can work and be the family heir. This heartbreaking story of Virginas life is told with strong words, augmented with harsh inviroment. Read More »
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From the Screenwriter of “Who’s Singin’ Over There”,”The Marathon Family”,”Balkanski Spijun” (flicks that are Serbian Cinematography at its best) comes (Writing Credits) this brilliant movie set in the surreal atmosphere of an archaeological site in northern Serbia in the second half of the 20th century. During the excavations of ancient Roman ruins, an old archeology professor discovers a Roman tombstone for which he has been searching all of his life. The tomb actually covers the passage from this world to the “other” one. In an attempt to move it from its place, the professor suffers a heart attack and soon dies. However, he only appears to be dead; in fact he is in a state “between life and death.” Being half-dead, half-alive, he can now establish a connection between the living and the dead. Speaking with his loved ones who passed away he can suddenly see his life in a different perspective. With the help of the professor, even the dead, led by the desire to see their relatives and loved ones, pass through the same corridor only to find out that the world of the living is not quite as they remembered or imagined it.Read More »
Synopsis:
A Pasolini-esque mythical tale that is probably a metaphor for Serbian-Croatian Yugoslavia of old and its politics. On an island that floats, the leader is an old captain constantly awaiting death who always holds up a picture of himself as a young man, there are dozens of black-clothed crones always hovering in the background, there’s a priest, a sailor, an older woman with desperate lusts, a young man, and various other characters that all seem to represent something. There’s also a law that says that people are not responsible for their actions during a depressing storm. When a beautiful and mysterious woman arrives by boat, she creates havoc, with all the men lusting after her, the women chasing and hating her, as she stirs up dark secrets like greed and lust in the priest’s home, a pregnancy, and deep confused desires from the dying captain. She only seems to get along with the laid-back young man who plays with her. The natives sing traditional song, the atmosphere is earthy and mythical, all leading to a violent metaphorical climax.Read More »
An early (1967) film by Dusan Makavejev, the master of the eastern European dirty joke (WR: Mysteries of the Organism, Montenegro). The passionate affair of a telephone operator and a Marxist rodent exterminator is intercut with lectures on criminology and sexology, with occasional cooking lessons. It’s very funny and, with its ragged arrangement of warring styles and ideologies, very original: it’s like a smutty, sticky-fingered Godard. – Dave Kehr, The Chicago ReaderRead More »
The first film of the Yugoslav Black Wave.
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Grad is a psychological drama about the thin line that separates depression and melancholy. It gives us the opportunity to understand that the alienation of the modern socialist man is not just a social problem, but also a poetic aestheticization of urban thinking and behaviour. For Pavlovic, Bapca, and especially Rakonjca, self-destruction is not a defence mechanism, but a lifestyle.
Exploring new areas of old sites, Grad is, in a figurative sense, the first Yugoslavian film that deals with the suburb as a metaphor of alternative culture. Through their analysis of public consciousness, the three directors project their secret Bauhaus, seeking its shadow in the hidden areas of obsolete thought, in the everyday of Socialism.Read More »
Yugoslavian vampire horror film
Directed by Djordje Kadijevic in 1973
Cast: Mirjana Nikolic, Petar Bozovic , Slobodan Perovic, Vasja Stankovic
This is a Yugoslavian female vampire horror film of the early 70s shot in the Serbian countryside and based on a novel. The film starts in a mill. The old miller listens strange bird voices and while he’s sleeping the millstone suddenly stops working and a strange creature with black hands, long nails, angry eyes and long teeth bites his neck and drinks his blood. You don’t manage to see the whole creature but you understand it’s a human, not animal…Read More »
A lighthouse keeper lives on an isolated island together with his wife, ailing father and retarded sister. News of a serial killer stalking the isolated lighthouses makes him leave in order to hunt him down. In the meantime, the wife meets a mysterious and seductive stranger.Read More »