Acting Hamlet in the Village of Mrduša Donja

Predstava Hamleta u selu Mrduša Donja; tragicomedy, Croatia, 1973; D: Krsto Papić, S: Rade Šerbedžija, Milena Dravić, Krešimir Zidarić, Fabijan Šovagović, Ljubiša Samardžić, Ilija Ivezić, Mate Ergović, Izet Hajdarhodžić, Zvonko Lepetić, Zdenka Hersak, Slavica Maras

In the village of Mrduša Donja in the Dalmatian hinterland, the position of the president of the working community was grabbed by Mate Bukara, who also stole some money from the community's funds and placed the blame on a war veteran, who is arrested by the police. But Joco, the veteran's son, wants to find out the truth. In order to celebrate the anniversary of his election, Mate orders the villagers to organize the play ''Hamlet'' with himself playing the King. A professor simplifies the text for the villagers, the role of Hamlet goes to Joco, while his girlfriend Anđa plays Ophelia. When the play starts and he hears his father committed suicide by jumping in front of a train, Joco takes a knife and stabs Mate for real on stage, and then runs away. A part of the villagers leaves, but Mate continues to celebrate and eat, even though wounded, dancing with his followers.

In 1973 the satirical cult play "Acting Hamlet in the Village of Mrdusa Donja" by Ivo Brešan was too seriously, but still professionally adapted by director Krsto Papić. That way he got an ambitious drama-within-a-drama that criticizes dictators and autocratic rulers (an obvious jab at the Yugoslav Communist Party at the time), here symbolically embodied in the conceited Mate Bukara (excellent Kresimir Zidaric)—the president of the working community who in order to honor and celebrate the anniversary of his election organizes the play "Hamlet" with himself in the role of the King!—but the best parts still remained those humorous bits. And the humor shines mostly in the first half. For instance, In one scene, Joco accuses Mate, who constantly brags about being a World War II veteran, of firing from his gun only three times during the entire war, and in the air at that. Mate is presented so backward and illiterate that he mispronounces "Hamlet" as "omelet".

The most comical bit is the subplot where Mate orders the professor "to rewrite Shakespeare" and "improve it", and thus said professor is anguished by trying to "adapt Shakespeare to the Balkan way", i.e. making it simple enough for the villagers to understand it. Among the "improved" monologues is also this one: "Look at Polonius over there, how he wants to ride an ox all by himself! The king would always like a seat, because it always licks his bare ass!" In English it doesn't sound so funny, but since it rhymes in Croatian, it is a riot. Too bad Papić did not more passionately embrace such a hilarious subplot that makes a caricature of "Hamlet", since the middle segment feels a bit empty, but the parallels between the play and the relationships of the characters are good, while the ending, although too bitter, is wonderfully nihilistic and presents a sort of "anti-Hamlet" subversion: while in "Hamlet", the title hero kills King Claudius in the end, here something else happens—such a subversive critique of autocratic politicians who celebrate the injustice that keeps them in power, devour and dance kolo (an exquisite close-up scene of Mate's head as shadows of people dance around him), without any consideration of others, is equal to a dark classic.

Grade:+++