Bal-Can-Can

Bal-Kan-Kan; black crime comedy, Macedonia / Italy / UK, 2005; D: Darko Mitrevski, S: Vlado Jovanovski, Adolfo Margiotta, Zvezda Angelovska, Branko Đurić, Dejan Ačimović, Nikola Kojo, Jelisaveta Sablić, Veronika Zakovska

During the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia, Trendafil Karanfilov wants to dodge being drafted in the army, so he flees with his wife Ruža and his mother-in-law Zumbula for a Bulgarian city along the Black Sea. However, Zumbula dies, and since he cannot find a grave for her since she is a foreigner, Trandafil and Ruža decide to smuggle her wrapped up in a carpet back to Macedonia. But, when they stop at a store, the carpet is stolen. they call Trendafil's Italian blood-brother Santino Genovese for help. Their trail leads them across Belgrade, Sarajevo, and finally to Kosovo, where they find it is in possession of criminal Sefket, whose gang wants to kill kidnapped children in an abandoned storage to be used for organ theft. In a shootout, Santino and a Russian woman named Nadya die, but Sefket is also killed, by Nadya's daughter. Trendafil retrieves the carpet and saves the children.

One of the most popular Macedonian movies, black comedy "Bal-Can-Can" uses its story of a search for a dead grandma wrapped up inside a stolen carpet just for an excuse as a giant allegory that depicts countries of South Balkan and their mentality, each having their own flaw and vice. The film abounds with unusual ideas, quirky jokes (smugglers trying to smuggle Italian clothes through Yugoslav customs by wearing five layers of clothes on them) and fast pacing, which ensured it cult status, but it was an unnecessary decision to have the character Santino speak in Italian for the entire film, when the rest of the movie is in Macedonian language, whereas the first third of the film is so brilliant, but the rest, revolving around the vague goose chase across Balkan countries, is of lesser inspiration and creativity, since its dynamic pacing overshadows its quality. 

The first twenty minutes are genius: the idea that toes of Santino's corpse in a morgue are narrating the story (!) is so bizarre and yet so unique at the same time, whereas one amusing montage shows how the protagonist Trendafil's major life events are always marked by the outbreak of a war somewhere (the Six-Day War started when he was born; he met the love of his life on the day the Slovenian War started; his first day of work was when the Bosnian War started; he got married when the NATO started bombing Serbia...). His mother-in-law, Zumbula, also has some funny dialogue: "If your father were alive, he would have died instantly of shame!" The main plot is a lot weaker, though. A lot of episodic character from Belgrade, Sarajevo and other locations are shown, but they feel rather random, arbitrary and too primitive at times, indulging more in the banal attempts at Balkan humor than trying to continue the high level from the start of the film. Nonetheless, the director Darko Mitrevski managed to make this Macedonian film look international and modern, making it more appealing than it was expected.

Grade:++

Welcome to Sarajevo

Welcome to Sarajevo; war drama, UK / USA, 1997; D: Michael Winterbottom, S: Stephen Dillane, Woody Harrleson, Goran Višnjić, Emira Nušević, Kerry Fox, Marisa Tomei, James Nesbitt, Emily Lloyd

Sarajevo during the Bosnian War. British reporter Michael Henderson, working for ITN, after completing the coverage for Battle of Vukovar, travels to Sarajevo and joins other foreign correspondents there covering the siege, including American Jimmy Flynn, Jane and Nina, who travel with Bosniak interpreter Risto. They film war crimes by the Serb paramilitary and snipers, shooting at civilians from the hills. Michael discovers an abandoned building used as a shelter by over fifty orphans, and decides to help organize a UN convoy out of Sarajevo, but along their way, a Serb paramilitary unit stops them and takes the Serb children from the bus, before leaving. Michael feels pity on one orphaned Bosniak girl, Emira, and decides to adopt her in England. Risto is shot by a sniper in his house. Before Michael leaves, he attends a concert by a cellist, out in the open, on a Sarajevo hill, for peace. 

Michael Winterbottom is one of the most agile and prolific directors covering uncomfortable social issues which are ignored by the mainstream cinema, thereby giving them a spotlight, and his film  "Welcome to Sarajevo" could play in a double-bill with the Bosnian film "The Perfect Circle", released that same year, in 1997—while the former shows a foreigner's perspective on the Siege of Sarajevo, the latter depicts the local perspective from within. What is remarkable about "Welcome to Sarajevo" is that it is based on real life account of British ITN reporter Michael Nicholson, which gives the movie authenticity, as opposed to many other war movies where directors or screenwriters would often make stuff up to fill in the gaps of their knowledge on the subject—but also that it intertwines and mixes his staged footage with real life archive footage of several incidents in the Bosnian War, thereby giving the viewers a "reference" point to reality. For instance, when the reporters arrive to cover a mortar massacre, modern actors covered in blood, lying on the street, are shown, but also archive footage of the real event is also shown, including a man carrying a woman whose lower part of her leg is half-detached and hanging from the mortar explosion. Had these foreign reporters not been on the scene of the crime, would the world even remember it or believe it?

After handing over such shocking footage for editing, Michael is surprised to hear from a co-worker that it will not be the main headline news: "What is the lead story? The second coming of Christ?" - "The Duke and Duchess of York are getting divorced". Later, even real-life footage of Omarska concentration camp is shown. Woody Harrelson is consistently the best among the cast as the cynical, flamboyant American reporter Jimmy who gives several comical wisecracks about the madness they are witnessing. In one sequence, as the international community finally decided to act, and UNPROFOR soldiers arrive posing for the cameras, Jimmy comments with: "My God, I don't think I've ever seen such clean looking people". In another sequence, when Jimmy and Michael are talking inside a building and a loud explosion is heard outside, Jimmy stands up and shouts at the wall: "Get a job!" Winterbottom improvises, or at least gives a feeling as if scenes are improvised, which might turn off a part of the viewers, since there is no story structure, it is all just random episodes happening here and there across Sarajevo which the reporters cover, which makes it more like a docudrama, and less like a cinematic achievement. However, of the foreign movies covering post-Yugoslav Wars, this one is among the best, showing meticulous care in reconstructing the events.

Grade:+++

Mr. Nobody Against Putin

Mr. Nobody Against Putin; documentary, Denmark / Czechia / Germany, 2025; D: David Borenstein, Pavel Talankin, S: Pavel Talankin, Pavel Abdulmanov, Vladimir Putin

Pavel "Pasha" Talankin is an event coordinator and cameraman in an elementary school in Karabash, a city in Goreshist Russia where the average lifespan is 38 years due to a copper smelting plant. But dictator and war criminal Vladimir Putin thinks even this lifespan is too much, and thus decides to shorten it by declaring a war against Ukraine on 24 February 2022 and sending Russians to die there. The school is ordered by the government to introduce a new "patriotic curriculum" and trick kids into supporting war. Pavel receives an offer from abroad to film these events in school and incorporate them into a documentary, and he accepts since the government orders that such lectures should be filmed. Pavel also talks to Masha, a girl whose brother was drafted and died in Ukraine. After he filmed enough, a disgusted Pavel secretly smuggles the footage and flees to safety in another country.

Documentary "Mr. Nobody Against Putin" is a modern retelling of Lot fleeing from Sodom and Gomorrah, from a place ruined by malice and wickedness which was so normalized that people themselves didn't even know how decadent they have become. This symbolism is inadvertent, but still appears gradually and naturally from the horrid events the cameraman Pavel Talankin is recording for history to remember, as a warning for future generations how to avoid making their society fall into the abyss that sunk his country, contaminated by the worst mass murderer of the 21st century Europe from the title. What Talankin is able to record in his town during the Russo-Ukrainian War is simply astonishing. At times the events seem to mirror those of "Jojo Rabbit", showing Goreshist propaganda indoctrinating Russian children and the senseless militarization of schools, presenting this as an idealized utopia; at other times, it reminds of a scene from "Simpsons" episode "A Star is Burns", where principal Skinner is under threat to be burned at the stake by the mob for claiming that the Earth reolves around the Sun—one simply wonders how such primitivism, atavism and counterfeiting of reality is still possible in modern civilization. 

It is a real struggle to stomach some of the disgusting situations shown here. For instance, after Putin's totalitarian dictatorship ordered that a new "patriotic curriculum" is to be held in the elementary school, a teacher is seen reading from paper in the classroom: "State policy in Ukraine is decided by radicals, nationalists and neo-Nazis. Everything that unites us is under attack." Why is a teacher teaching war to children aged 12? Why is the photo of the head of state in every classroom? The next teacher, a certain Abdulmanov, goes even further, exaggerating off-script, claiming that in France people have to pay 150€ to fill their tank with petrol and that they will soon have to ride on horses, adding angrily at the end: "As I said, we could destroy Ukraine in a couple of days." TV anchors speak even more extremist statements: "We shouldn't kill them out of hate. We must kill them out of love, love for our children." At a school event, prizes are announced: "The second place for grenade throwing, age category 15-16, goes to..."; whereas even Wagner paramilitary soldiers are seen holding a lecture in the classroom, giving a small landmine to some girls sitting there to pass it forward to others. Later, some kids are given unloaded rifles and encouraged to practice shooting. A shocking, concise and sharp chronicle of madness and moral downfall of a society, this movie gives the documentary genre a reason to exist. And a message that no matter what problems you have, at least you are lucky that you were not born in Goreshist Russia.

Grade:+++

Zootopia 2

Zootopia 2; computer-animated fantasy crime comedy, USA, 2025; D: Jared Bush, Byron Howard, S: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster, Andy Samberg, David Strathairn Shakira, Idris Elba, Patrick Warburton, Quinta Brunson, Danny Trejo, Alan Tudyk, Nate Torrence, Don Lake, Bonnie Hunt, Jenny Slate

Following the end of their case, rabbit cop Judy Hopps and her partner fox Nick Wilde try to bust a smuggler ring, but this ends in a chase and chaos, so their superior, police chief Bogo, sends them to couples therapy. This is too boring for Judy, so she takes on a next assignment on her own: a snake assaults the ancestor of Zootopia's founder, Milton Lynxley, at a dinner party, claiming he framed his family, while the proof is allegedly in the diary of Milton's grandfather. Judy uncharacteristically trusts the snake, thereby becoming a fugitive since Milton controls Zootopia's mayor, and orders the police to arrest anyone aiding the snake. Nick is arrested, but manages to escape from prison with beaver Maplestick. Judy manages to uncover a conspiracy showing Zootopia was actually founded by the snake's forefathers, who were cast out by the Lynxleys, and teams up back with Nick.

In this much faster, but also much weaker and less careful sequel to the wonderful "Zootopia", filmed nine years later, everything is done nominally right, and yet, everything seems so schematic and mechanical, almost as if a ChatGPT on autopilot wrote the story. Anthropomorphic rabbit Judy Hopps, which was such a fascinating character in the first film, seems to be done with less care this time around, not managing to come to full expression. "Zootopia 2" suffers from the often problem of modern movies: its rushed, frenetic fast pacing seems to be a distraction for a lack of inspiration. Nontheless, it is a good movie, with solid jokes, a one that relies more on detective-investigation genre this time around. Some jokes do manage to ignite on a more authentic level: for instance, when fox Nick cynically complains to Judy about their relationship: "Being on the same page means always being on your page". In another brilliant one, a dik-dik animal gets stuck in a tuba, so Judy's dad calls to ask her to find him that "dik-dik pic". The rest is more standard, filled with chase sequences, but they do not stand out from a mass of other chase sequences of other movies. However, it tackles some serious themes, including gentrification and erasure of the indigenous population by colonizers, but also the problem of diversity in a relationship, since Judy and Nick are sometimes too different to work as a couple. This culminates in a beautiful, unexpectedly emotional confession of their feelings in the finale, when they make up. In a time when everything seems hopeless since nothing seems to change the world towards better, the scene where Judy concludes that a good deed at least matters to one person is nice. Though it is indicative that for a comedy, this movie's dramatic moments are consistently more memorable and effective than its comical moments. 

Grade:++

The Pianist

The Pianist; war drama, France / Germany / Poland / UK, 2002; D: Roman Polanski, S: Adrien Brody, Frank Finlay, Maureen Lipman, Emilia Fox, Ed Stoppard, Julia Rayner, Jessica Kate Meyer, Thomas Kretschmann

Warsaw, 1 9 3 9. Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman plays live on the radio, but this is disrupted when Nazi Germany invades Poland, annexing it. Szpilman and his family—father, mother, brother Henryk, sisters Regina and Halina—decide to stay in the city, but the Nazi occupation imposes discriminatory laws against 400,000 Jews in the city, who have to wear the star of David and are deported to live in a ghetto. Szpilman's entire family is deported in a train to the Treblinka concentration camp, but he is taken out of their ranks by the Jewish Ghetto Police, thus saving his life. Szpilman is able to get smuggled out of the ghetto by the resistance and given an apartment nearby. He has to run again after the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, and hide in another building. World War II causes famine and the Nazi unit destroys the city, but he is given food and help by a Nazi officer, Wilm Hosenfeld, who allows him to hide in an attic. After the end of the war, Szpilman recovers and resumes playing piano at concerts.

Based on the autobiography of Wladyslaw Szpilman, "The Pianist" gives a highly authentic depiction of one experience of the worst genocide in human history, the Holocaust, showing once again that war movies are sometimes basically 'grounded' horror movies. Once the viewers start watching it, they have to watch it to the end due to its gripping, gruesome depiction of the persecution of Jews during the totalitarian dictatorship of the Nazis in occupied Warsaw, which basically becomes a city-character in the story itself, showing deep scars towards the end, and some of the moments are so terrifying that you will not be able to stomach watching this movie more than twice. Adrien Brody is excellent as the Jewish pianist Szpilman, and his point-of-view becomes the point-of-view of the viewers, as well. The first two thirds of the film are the most shocking, abounding with moments he wrote down, even though he didn't understand why nor knew the context in most of them. The story is able to transmit a feeling of this dread to the viewers, as if they feel it on their own skin. For instance, Jews are all resettled to the Warsaw Ghetto, and observe how the Nazi soldiers are building a wall between two residential buildings, to prevent the inhabitants from leaving. 

In one disturbing sequence, Szpilman and his family observe from the window how a Nazi unit arrives in a car during the night, goes to the building across and enters the room of a Jewish family inside. They order all inhabitants inside to stand up, and the only man who is not able, because he is in a wheelchair, is thrown out the balcony to the ground, to his death. The inhabitants are brought down and then seen running away as the Nazis shoot them all, and then enter the car and run over some corpses as they leave. No explanation is given. It's all just random episodes of cruelty, which heightens the feeling of uncertainty. Due to starvation in the ghetto, one man is even seen licking porridge dropped on the street. The most emotional moment happens subtly—Szpilman, his family and hundreds of Jews are ordered to march towards a train, and he turns around towards his sister Halina and says: "It's a funny time to say this, but..." - "What?" - "I wish I knew you better." He is then taken out of this row by the Jewish Ghetto Police, while his family is sent to the train, and he never sees them again. Roman Polanski directs the movie in a rather conventional, straightforward, but standard way, not managing to make it more cinematic than just a docudrama, nor to show more directing craftsmanship (except in the process of the cinematography gradually draining the colors with time, to show the decay of Warsaw during the war), and the flaw is that Szpilman is such a passive character who never does anything but observe, run and hide, but since this is based on his true story, it has to be accepted in such form. Him observing becomes a symbol for the viewers themselves observing, not being able to do anything but just see a glimpse of events of horrible history through a movie. As film critic Nenad Polimac contemplated in his review of "Saving Private Ryan", why do some directors display the "De Mille syndrome" which awakens their inspiration the most from scent of blood in their movies? That is something for the psychologists to answer. 

Grade:+++

Soldier of Orange

Soldaat van Oranje; war drama, Netherlands, 1977; D: Paul Verhoeven, S: Rutger Hauer, Jeroen Krabbé, Lex van Delden, Derek de Lint, Edward Fox, Susan Penhaligon, Huib Rooymans

Leiden during the German Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Students Erik cooperates with his friend Jan, a boxing champion, to help him flee to England, but on the beach, the Nazis arrest and later execute Jan. Erik, who was also in prison, is released and spied on by the Nazis, so he and his friend Guus board a ship to England. In London, they meet Dutch Queen Willhemina, who gives them the assignment to smuggle Dutch resistance members to England. Guus has a relationship with a British military official, Susan. Erik returns to Leiden, but then finds out his friend, Robby, who communicates with the Dutch government-in-exile via a radio transmitter, collaborates with the Nazis who pressured Robby that they will otherwise deport his Jewish girlfriend Esther. They fall into a Nazi trap, but manage to escape. As a revenge, Guus later shoots Robby on the street, but is caught and executed. Erik returns to England and becomes a RAF bomber pilot. After the end of World War II, he returns to the Netherlands with Queen Willhemina.   

Based upon memoirs of Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema and his experiences in World War II, "Soldier of Orange" is a little bit overrated, but still an overall very good motion picture, miles better than a majority of Dutch films which have no sense for cinema, while also delivering one of the best roles for its leading actor Rutger Hauer who plays said Erik. The director Paul Verhoeven restrains his style a little bit this time around, to show respect towards the resistance members of his country, but still luckily finds moments of wacky humor and bizarre ideas. The story is a bit uneven: the first half, which shows the social effects and upheaval of the Nazi occupation of the Nethelands, is excellent, but the second half, which follows Erik who flees to England and then gets a minor assignment to secretly smuggle a few resistance members to London, is a bit overstretched and insipid. The opening act shows Erik as a student freshman enduring an initiation rite at a University, where the older Guus pours a bowl of soup on his bald head, while a dozen students sit at a table, having to feed the guy next to them with a spoon. 

The outbreak of the war breaks several cliches, avoiding patriotism: Erik and Guus volunteer to fight for their country against the invasion, but the drafting officer tells them to return in ten days, implying the people at the top already decided to give up on any resistance. The invasion ends in four days, and soldiers protest against their superior who informs them of their capitulation: "But we were just getting started!" Several wacky details are present: for instance, in one beach sequence, Erik unknowingly places a gasoline canister on a nail while trying to hide it in a box, and closes the lid, which presses the canister on the nail, causing it to leak the gasoline, which later ignites. In prison, Erik writes anti-Nazi slogans on a toilet paper roll, and wraps it back inside, so he gets summoned for interrogation by a Nazi official: "What did you write that with?" - "Sir, with shit, sir." In London, Erik applies to be a RAF bomber pilot, but glasses aren't allowed for such a job, so he simply cheats on his eye vision test—he holds a hand in front of his right eye, but hides a glass lens behind it, to open his fingers a bit and clearly see the letters through it. Some moments seem clumsy or rushed, some far fetched, but overall, the story is engaging, gripping and flows smoothly, and the characters feel alive. "Soldier of Orange" is impressive, but it is not the best Dutch World War II film—ironically, it was surpassed by Verhoeven himself when he directed the excellent "Black Book" 29 years later, proving that in Dutch cinema only he can be his own match and do even better.

Grade:+++

The Perfect Circle

Savršeni krug; war drama, BiH, 1997; D: Ademir Kenović, S: Mustafa Nadarević, Almedin Leleta, Almir Podgorica, Jasna Diklić, Dragan Marinković

Sarajevo, Bosnian War. Hamza is a Bosniak poet who evacuates his wife and daughter in a bus to the Croatian territory for their safety. Upon returning back to his apartment, he discovers two little boys found refuge inside: Adis and his deaf brother Kerim, whose parents were killed inside their house by a Serb paramilitary attack. Hamza takes care of them, and a dog wounded by a sniper. The dog is given an improvised wheelchair. The siege leaves little food and firewood during the winter. Hamza decides to take the boys to a tunnel to evacuate them outside the city, to their aunt. However, a Serb sniper attacks and kills Adis. Hiding in an abandoned building, Kerim hits one Serb soldier with a log in the head, gets his machine gun and shoots the other Serb soldier. Hamza burries Adis in an improvised graveyard.

How would you live if your city was engulfed by war? In one of the best movies thematizing post-Yugoslav Wars, in this case the Siege of Sarajevo, the authors assemble a collection of episodes and vignettes of people trying to survive the wartime pressure, and since they are based on real-life anecdotes, they contain a high dose of authenticity. Augmented by screenwriter and poet Abdulah Sidren, the screenplay of "The Perfect Circle" works not only thanks to the excellent performance by the leading actor Mustafa Nadarević, but also thanks to numerous little details that all illustrate a bigger picture about war crimes of starvation and persecution. For instance, people with canisters fight over who will get water from a firetruck. In another, after Hamza visits his friend Marko, the two boys have this exchange with him: "Isn't that a Serb name? Is he a Chetnik?" - "You can't recognize a Chetnik by name." - "Then by what?" - "By killing". This shows the story refusing to treat characters and nations in black-and-white perspectives. 

During the winter, there is no heating, so the two boys suggest to burn the books to heat up the stove, but Hamza refuses and rather places old shoes in the fire. Later, when the kids watch Chaplin's film "The Gold Rush" on TV, and spot the protagonist eating a shoe, they wonder out loud that the Americans have such good shoes that they can be eaten, as opposed to their own which are only useful for fire. And in one of the most surreal and surprising moments, a one that walks on a limit of black humor, Hamza wants to impress the kids by showing them the only building with electricity in the city covered by dark night, the UNPROFOR building occupied by the French, who celebrate Christmas and dance inside, while the boys are amazed at the electricity and "how much water they have", watching from the fence. The whole movie is a meditation of helpless, fragile humanity during war and violence, embodied in Hamza, a poet, an artist who cannot understand such primitivism in civilization, and whose hallucinations of his wife and daughter signal his descend into personal madness and end. The finale is even suspenseful, presenting a sad story that serves as a monument to all the victims of the siege.

Grade:+++

Petria's Wreath

Petrijin venac; drama, Serbia, 1980; D: Srđan Karanović, S: Mirjana Karanović, Dragan Maksimović, Marko Nikolić, Pavle Vuisić, Darinka Živković, Olivera Marković

The old Petrija observes retouched photos from her past and remembers her life in a village: as a young woman, the illiterate Petrija marries Dobrivoja, but his mother doesn't like her. Petrija becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son in a barn, but doesn't cut the umbilical cord for the entire day becuase she waits for her mother-in-law to do it, so the baby dies. Her daughter dies from a disease. Thinking she is cursed, Dobrivoja divorces her. Petrija works as a waitress in a pub owned by Ljubiša. She marries Misa, but he has an accident in a local coal mine, and his leg is left damaged, so he limps with a crane. He later has a stroke and dies. When the coal mine is closed, the railway is dismantled, and thus Petrija stays living alone in the desolate farm.

1980 was a great year for burly actor Pavle Vuisic, who starred in two movies that were included in a local poll as among the top ten films in Serbia of the 20th century: comedy "Who's That Singing Over There?" and drama "Petria's Wreath". The latter is a somber, astringent and meditative rural drama that builds its repertoire on emotions and drama, but luckily avoids pathetic melodrama, and does that with concise elegance, whereas the main actress Mirjana Karanović is excellent in the leading role. Several segments are symbolic and tie the private life of the heroine with historic moments. For instance, the World War II period is marked by death and bad luck—Petrija gives birth in a barn, but doesn't cut the umbilical cord for hours, so the baby dies. She carries her second child while soldiers fight in the village and explosions are seen in the background, but the child dies from diptheria. The post-war era becomes a sort of reconstruction era for not only the village, but also for her, when she divorces and starts a new beginning as a waitress, hired by Ljubiša (Vuisic).

There is a phenomenal dialogue that he says when she asks him why he drinks so much, and he explains his misery: "You are not the only one with a problem. Everyone has one. Me and my life have gone our separate ways. Me here, he there. My wife died, the kids left, and my life goes somewhere over there, passing me by". This scene is filmed in the tavern, with him sitting in dark, and her standing on the light of the door, to show his nihilism and her uplifting energy. In this segment, Ljubiša is a wealthy owner of the tavern, but then young Communists smash the place claiming he is a capitalist, so he has to close it and leave—a remarkably well done critique of Communism. The final third of the film is a lot weaker, though, and plays out almost like a soap opera. Not even the sudden surreal moments of Petrija having brief visions of her dead child and dead husband lead to much and feel somewhat underdeveloped and misplaced. The finale is thus a letdown, without much creativity, but that still does not detract from the wonderful film language with enough valuable lyrical moments up to that point. 

Grade:+++

Me Before You

Me Before You; romantic drama, UK / USA, 2016, D: Thea Sharrock, S: Emilia Clarke, Sam Claflin, Janet McTeer, Charles Dance, Brendan Coyle, Jenna Coleman

Pembroke. When the store she was working in is closed, Louise Clark is left unemployed. Her parents and sister Katrina urge her to find any job, so she applies as a caregiver for Will Traynor, a guy who was left paralyzed and in a wheelchair after a motorcycle hit him. Will at first rejects Louise, but they bond when she shows sympathy for him when his ex-girlfriend Alicia visits him to announce her wedding. He shows her his DVD collection of foreign films, and she brings him to a concert. Will's parents hope Louise will bring optimism back to his life, but he is determined to undergo assisted suicide at the Swiss association Dignitas. Louise and Will go to Mallorca and experience a romantic time, but he still decides to end his life. Louisa is in Paris, reading his farewell letter.

"Beauty and the Beast" in a wheelchair—"Me Before You" is one of those movies that tackle a difficult, depressive topic, but do it in an uplifting, humorous and optimistic way, which works very well, all until the viewers gradually forget what they are watching, and all that is left is a story about compassion between two people developing a relationship. The story tackles people living on the margins, in this case a handicapped man bound to a wheelchair, thereby giving them a face and a chance to be humanized. Similarly like "Intouchables" and "Nationale 7", this movie is also able to avoid too heavy melodrama thanks to humor, and also does it with respect. The main virtue is the chemistry between the two protagonists, Will and Louise, his caregiver, who slowly develop into wonderful friends. The movie owes 90% of its appeal to one unsung genius: Emilia Clarke is simply perfect as Louise, delivering an excellent performance, expressing emotions through her gestures and facial expressions, even with her charming eyebrows. Louise is such an excellent character since she is so patient, kind, considerate and caring, and her personality alone is the highlight of this film. 

The humorous dialogues help a lot and go a long way. In the opening scenes, Louisa is introduced working in a store. A woman asks her how much calories does a certain dish have, and Louisa replies: "220. But there is less if you eat them standing up". Upon finding a new job as a caregiver, Louisa is stressed because Will is uncooperative, and complains to her sister: "Every time I speak, he looks at me like I'm stupid". - "To be fair, you are pretty stupid". - "Yeah, but he doesn't know that yet". Slowly, though, they start to bond and show empathy towards each other. In one of the best moments, Louisa decides to bring some anarchy into a boring wedding by sitting on Will's lap, and ride with him in the wheelchair on the dance podium. They then have this exchange: "You know you never would have let those breasts come near me if I wasn't in the wheelchair." - "Yeah, well you never would have been looking at these breasts if you hadn't been in this wheelchair". Eventually, Louisa becomes a symbol for eros and Will for thanatos, and they clash over his choice to commit suicide. She wants life to prevail, he wants to give up and end the misery. The movie lacks inspiration and does turn towards the soap opera in the last third, but it also avoids becoming too sentimental: the finale is measured and well edited. "Me Before You" is one of those guilty pleasures not because of trash, but because of emotions that make you enjoy it despite its flaws.

Grade:++

Living Out Loud

Living Out Loud; drama / comedy, USA, 1998; D: Richard LaGravenese, S: Holly Hunter, Danny DeVito, Queen Latifah, Martin Donovan, Richard Schiff, Elias Koteas

New York City. Nurse Judith separates from her husband, Dr. Nelson, after finding out he is cheating on her with another woman. Judith wants to become a pediatrician, but is currently just a wreck and unable to pulls herself together, until she befriends elevator operator Pat, whose daughter recently died and who has gambling debts. Judith also becomes friends with night club singer Liz, who gives her advice. Judith persuades Pat to start a business of importing Italian food to New York, but when he hints at wanting a relationship with her, Judith rejects him. Months later, she sees Pat singing in the night club and sitting at a table with another woman.

Situated somewhere as a more serious version of Brooks' "As Good as It Gets" and a gentler version of Solondz's "Happiness", "Living Out Loud" is a slice-of-life movie that does not build its foundation on a story, but rather on characters and and their little encounters, striving towards authenticity and humanity. Writer and director Richard LaGravenese has at times a wonderful sense for patient character development and understanding their flaws, while celebrating their compassion and empathy, and also a sense for good dialogues. The first third of the movie is the best, as it shows a tender approachment between Judith, who wanted to have kids but her ex-husband didn't, and Pat, who lost his daughter. They are played brilliantly by Holly Hunter and Danny DeVito, in a rare dramatic role. In one of the highlights, Pat sits with Judith and delivers a wonderful observation about his daughter who wanted to become a singer, which he also initially aspired to be when he was a kid: "It's really funny that things that are inside of you that never come out, and then they come out in your kids". 

In another sequence, he also admits: "I have to love somebody". Judith also says a few impressive lines: "Funny what you can tell a stranger you can't tell people you know." The big flaw is that the second half of the movie feels aimless, not knowing what to do nor what direction to take. Furthering the relationship between Pat and Judith would have been a natural direction to take, but the movie unfortunately wastes too much time on Judith wandering across the city, solo, almost as if she is determined not to find some sort of a point in life. The ending thus feels unsatisfying and incomplete. The character of night club singer Liz is, for instance, uninteresting, and thus it is not quite clear why the movie dedicates so much time to her. Pat is thus left rather underused, which is a pity. Nontheless, "Living Out Loud" advocates for honesty and trying to live life to the fullest, showing how difficult it is to do so in an urban life full of neurosis, self-doubt and anxiety. One masterful sequence: Judith cannot sleep during the night in her apartment, so she turns on the TV, walks to the window, opens it and then jumps out of it. The TV news anchor is heard mentioning her death, as the camera then pans towards the right, back to Judith in bed, revealing it to be just her mental projection and state of mind.

Grade:++

Accidental Life

Slučajni život; drama / art-film, Croatia, 1969; D: Ante Peterlić, S: Dragutin Klobučar, Ivo Serdar, Ana Karić, Zvonimir Rogoz, Helena Buljan, Stjepan Bahert, Fabijan Šovagović

Zagreb. Filip and Stanko work boring jobs in the same office of a company, rowing on a boat on the Sava river during their time off. Filip is shy and disciplined, while Stanko is wild, raw and often late at work. Filip starts dating a co-worker, Iva, even though that is forbidden in the company they both work in. When his relationship with Iva ends, and a friend mistakes him for having an affair with his girlfriend Elvira, who was in Filip's apartment, Filip becomes depressed, becomes drunk and falls asleep in a train, waking up in Mučna Reka. After a week of unexplained absence from work, he is scolded by the boss and warned to not do that again. During the company rowing contest, Filip and Stanko win, but then just continue rowing along Sava and disappear over the horizon.

The only feature length film directed by the most respected film scholar of Croatia, Ante Peterlić, "Accidental Life" is a peculiar art-film that did not gain much attention initially due to its restrained and low-key approach, but is an overall interesting existential meditation on the emptiness of urban life in search for some meaning and excitement. Peterlić directs the movie with a minimalist, classic aesthetic, with elegant camera frames, showing the two disparate protagonists Filip and Stanko as yin and yang, though the story is lacking, not able to truly align into some articulated whole. The best bits are some dry attempts at humor—for instance, the rowdy Stanko is often late to work, and in one sequence arrives 45 minutes late in the office. When scolded for it, Stanko becomes agitated: "I guess I must be the most important person in the company when everyone waits for my arrival! You are scared that a person isn't affraid to come 45 minutes late, instead of 45 minutes early! I don't know what all the fuss is about when there is a general rule that nobody in this company works in the first hour anyway." It is both amusing and a subtle commentary on Communist companies back in the day that were not efficient in work. The superior in the office even later makes a graph of Stanko's delays at work. One sequence even is totally bizarre and weird: the one where Filip, Stanko and others go to an interactive experimental play where actors use axes to hack a cupboard and throw chickens at the audience, which is a rather heavy-handed symbolism of extreme art as a new form of decadence in urban life. The movie needed more inspiration and ideas, since it does suffer from empty walk and occasional lukewarm charge, relying more on form than content, but it does have a literate knowledge of filmmaking.

Grade:++

Saturday Night

Subotom uveče; drama, Serbia, 1957, D: Vladimir Pogačić, S: Zoran Stojiljković, Radmila Andrić, Milan Srdoč, Pavle Vuisić, Nevenka Mikulić, Milorad Pavlović

Belgrade. Mirko and Nada kiss out in the public, so a police officer asks for their ID. Mirko protests and is brought to the police station, where he explains Nada is his wife for 20 days now, but they didnt tell their parents since they were only married to get a government-funded apartment for married couples... A masseur, nicknamed "Doctor", helped a boxer, Perry, but is too late to attend his boxing match since the seats are sold out. Using a trick that he is a doctor, the security guard opens the gate of the fence and lets him in. The Doctor watches the boxing match and even gives suggestions to Perry how to fight, who wins the match. Afterwards, the Doctor waits to see Perry, but he doesn't have time for him and rushes with his managers in a car... A shy guy wants to invite a girl to dance during a Jazz party, but other guys beat him to the punch. The girl is insulted that he ignores her, but they eventually make up and dance.

Included in a 1 9 9 6 poll of the local Board of the Academy of Film Art and Science as one of the 10 best Serbian films of the 20th century, "Saturday Night" is an anthology of three stories, but the first one is definitely the best, as the other two pale somewhat in comparison. The said first segment is practically a comedy, building its humor on the awkward behavior of a young couple, Mirko and Nada, as they are for some reason interogated for kissing out in public by a police officer, and thus the viewers find out more about their lives, which makes them look even weirder. For instance, it turns out they were married 20 days ago, but Nada, a student who lives with her parents and sister in a small apartment, didn't say anything to her family (!) and still keeps it a secret. The situation becomes more and more twisted at the police station, where Nada's angry father shows up, demanding answers, all leading to a comical resolution, while also giving a commentary on the problems of finding accommodation in urban areas. The second story is more melancholic and sad, but it also has some humorous scenes (a security guard works on his first day, hears that there is a "doctor" among the people in the crowd standing at the gate of a boxing hall, so he lets said man inside, but as he opens the gate around twenty other people also rush to enter the premises with him). Its main theme is lonely people who live on the margins and are ignored by others because they are ugly looking, and no matter what they do, they still remain hapless. The third story is fine, but did not develop its thin premise of a guy and a girl who like each other, but constantly fail to engage due to misunderstandings and jumping to wrong conclusions, though it also profits from the director Vladimir Pogacic's elegant sense for natural story flow.

Grade:++ 

Leap of Faith

Leap of Faith; drama / comedy, USA, 1992; D: Richard Pearce, S: Steve Martin, Debra Winger, Liam Neeson, Lolita Davidovich, Lukas Haas, Albertina Walker, Meat Loaf, Philip Seymour Hoffman

Faith healer Jonas, his manager Jane and their staff of around 30 people stop at Dustwater, Kansas when one of their trucks breaks down, and thus decide to open a show to take money from the people, while they are at it. Sheriff Will is against it, since drought and high unemployement already took a huge toll on the agriculture community. A lot of religious crowd shows up in his tent, while Jane feeds info to Jonas on stage about certain people, for him to give them comfort. Jane and Will start a relationship, while Jonas flirts with Marva, a waitress. When one teenager with a handicapped leg, Boyd, touches the crucifix on stage and throws away the crutches, and is able to walk again, Jones realizes a real miracle occured. Jonas thus quits his job as a preacher and takes a ride from a stranger heading to Florida, just as it starts to rain.

"Leap of Faith" is a strong humorous drama that tackles the American social phenomenon of faith healers and preachers on stage, featuring one of Steve Martin's best performances, but it is also one of those movies that are ruined by a misguided ending. The film has a gorgeous cinematography and several serious moments, but also a knack for witty dialogue. Most of these come from the protagonist, faith healer Jonas, who uses all sorts of tricks and ploys to manipulate people around him, though some refuse to be fooled. For instance, upon arriving to the small Kansas town, Jonas goes to a diner and encounters a sceptic waitress, Marva, and does a trick to show her the importance of faith: he takes off his watch, claiming it was a gift from his mother when he graduated seminary, and then throws it away on the floor. He then jumps on it and crushes it, picking up the broken watch in front of a startled Marva: "See Marva, nothing has value without salvation." The screenplay by Janus Cercone rightfully depicts Jonas and his group as scammers and frauds, contemplating about the tendency of people to agree to be fooled, willingly, in the name of religion. Several tricks are revealed, such as the one where Jane feeds Jonas info via an earpiece about certain people in the audience, for instance about a man having backpain or another having a feud with his neighbor, so that Jonas can claim divine inspiration in knowing them. But privately, he is fittingly shown as a cynic. 

Before going on stage in front of the crowd, he wears a fancy suit and gives Jane advice: "Always look better than they do". In the middle of the show, when the church choir is singing, there is a great cut to the crew in the office afterwards, just counting money they earned that evening. It says everything. In one of the best moments, Jonas even goes on an empty stage and talks to the crucifix: "Hey boss. Remember me? Got a question for you. Why did you make so many suckers? You say, 'love never endeth.' Well, I say, love never starts! You say, 'the meek shall inherit the earth.' And, I say, the only thing the meek can count on is getting the short end of the stick! You say, 'is there one among you who is pure of heart?' And, I say, not one!" The movie would have even worked even better as a satire, but even in this edition, it has a good balance between drama and comedy. It all works, all until the disingenuous ending that negates everything the movie stood for up to that point. In that forced Disney happy ending a boy throws away his crutches and walks in front of the crowd, but it betrays the bitter realism of the story up until that point: religious miracles simply don't exist, it is all just a form of fraud to exploit the gullible for their money, and thus the tonal differences of the beginning and the ending of the film clash badly with each other. If there had been a really black humorous twist to this ("Monk" episode 7.9., "Mr. Monk and the Miracle", comes to mind), it would have worked, but by presenting this fraud business as suddenly something genuine, the movie inevitably loses its courage and sharpness to give the audience a truly deserved bitter ending.

Grade:++

I Was Nineteen

Ich war neunzehn; war drama, Germany, 1968; D: Konrad Wolf, S: Jaecki Schwarz, Vasily Livanov, Alexey Eybozhenko, Dieter Mann, Rolf Hoppe

April 1 9 4 5. Gregor Hecker is a 19-year old German whose parents fled from Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union, and he is now accompanying the Red Army in its counterattack in Brandenburg, speaking in German over the loudspeaker and trying to persuade as many German soldiers to surrender. They arrive at Bernau where he is briefly appointed as the commander of the town; they liberate the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and question one of the guards; he and and a Soviet officer enter the Spandau fortress to negotiate about the Wehrmacht surrendering, to avoid bloodshed; the 1 May is celebrated in a building. On a meadow, a group of Nazi soldiers disguise themselves as Soviets and attack Hecker's unit, then continue fleeing. Hecker talks to them to surrender over the loudspeaker, and some German soldiers do, but then a SS unit passes by and shoots at them, killing some.

The director Konrad Wolf chronicles his own autobiographical experiences at the end of World War II in "I Was Nineteen", and thus the entire movie is made out of meandering episodes and vignettes—some are better, some are weaker—but overall it is a compelling chronicle of war madness, as well as the unusual situation where the 19-year old protagonist is an anti-Nazi German encountering Nazi Germans. War movies are often suitable for high drama due to high stakes, since the protagonists' lives are always on thin ice, but here the mood is more calm, restrained and measured. One reason may be that the budget was not that high, and thus no major action sequences were able to be staged, as instead the locations mostly play out on a meadow, far away from the front line or cities. Some moments are a bit clumsy: 32 minutes into the film, when the Red Army arrives at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, there is a peculiar use of archive footage from the East German documentary film "Todeslager Sachsenhausen" which shows ex-guard Paul Sakowski explaining how inmates were killed in the gas chamber via hydrogen cyanide—Wolf may have inserted it for the sake of authenticity, but it feels like a poor choice that sticks out like a sore thumb, bordering on copyright infringement and lazy refusal to simply film it anew. Nontheless, some situations are iconic and incredible, showing how authenticity negates war film cliches. 

For instance, in one excellent episode, the protagonist Hecker and a Soviet officer walk to the gates of the Spandau fortress in the countryside, trying to negotiate a surrender of Nazi soldiers inside to avoid bloodshed. Two officers descend from a rope ladder down to them, and then invite them to climb up inside, where Wolf subtly shows a rift between two factions: the Wehrmacht and the SS, that cannot stand each other since the SS is impossibly hardline extremist and refuses to compromise on anything. One SS officer even laments to another: "One cannot rely on Italians, Romanians, Bulgarians anyway, but that our own people fail in this fateful fight, that is an incredible betrayal and it is going on for years! The negotiators should simply be shot, that's it." When no agreement is able to be reached, the Wehrmacht commander proposes a compromise to the two Soviet negotiators: "We won't attack you, and you won't attack us. You claim the war will be over any day now. So let's wait and then we will hand over the fortress within the framework of the expected capitulation of the Wehrmacht." As Hecker and the Soviet officer are escorted outside through a secret exit, the two Nazi officers that lead them, use this opportunity to simply run to a boat on a nearby lake and escape from their commanders. Communist propaganda seems to have inhibited Wolf in certain parts (Soviet soldiers raping in town is hinted at in only one vague scene of a German woman searching for shelter), but he was still skilful enough to craft a memorable film, a one where some quiet sentences will stay in your mind without the viewers even noticing it  (a Soviet soldier from Kyiv asks a German Communist: "How will I explain this to my kids? Goethe and Auschwitz. Two German names. Two names of the same language").

Grade:+++

Stars

Sterne; war drama, Germany / Bulgaria, 1959; D: Konrad Wolff, S: Jürgen Frohriep, Sasha Krusharska, Erik S. Klein, Stefan Pejchev, Geori Naumov

A small Bulgarian town, World War II. Walter, a Nazi officer and former painter, oversees a detention center from where Greek Jews are brought before being deported further to Auschwitz. A Jewish woman, Ruth, addresses him across the barbed wire to ask for help for a woman giving birth. Walter rejects her, but later still sends a doctor who delivers the baby. Walter walks with Ruth outside, under the surpervision of a Nazi guard, and enjoys talking with her. A doctor is arrested under suspicion of delivering medicine to the partisans in the forest. Walter hears from his colleague Kurt about Auschwitz. Walter devises a plan to get Ruth and hide her, but he is too late: the Nazis loaded all the Jews onto a train and deported them already.

The first German movie mentioning the Auschwitz concentration camp, a one made in East Germany, "Stars" is an excellent and sensible depiction of a transition of a person from an obedient, rigid, cold official to an active human being with broader consciousness who gains enough courage to act and try to make a difference, even though the system forbids it. The director Konrad Wolff directs the movie with a lot of colorful details, energy, and refuses to present any character as black and white: Walter is a symbol for many Nazi officers who followed orders and laws of their country, without even knowing what they are doing, but who later realized its inhumanity and their error of serving a totalitarian dictatorship. Since Walter is an amateur painter, an artist, he has some connection with humanity and thus develops forbidden empathy with the Jewish woman, Ruth. Several details are wonderful. Some cinematic techniques are aesthetic: for instance, the camera zooms in on Walter's painting of a church tower, and then there is a match cut to a real church tower in the town, and a zoom out. When Ruth teaches kids Greek alphabet in the detention center, as a pregnant woman's shriek is heard from the next room, the camera suddenly rises 10 ft up in the air, above Ruth and the kids. 

Wolff presents the private lives of Nazis Walter and Kurt with a perplexingly casual, calm tone, as if he is following two ordinary people doing ordinary things and chatting. For instance, in a tavern where Kurt and Walter are having dinner with two local Bulgarian women and a collaborator, Kurt jokes that Bulgaria declared war against the US and Britain: "Did you hear, Walter? They declared them war, because they are far away from their shooting range." On a hill, Walter mocks the entire civilization: "Humanity needed two million years to end up back where it started. A pity for all that effort. During war, everyone is a chimpanzee". While going to bed in the barrack, Walter asks Kurt what kind of a place Auschwitz actually is, doubting it is just a planting garden as the propaganda claims, and Kurt gives a chillingly calm answer: "It's a human meat grinder". The movie slows down for poetic conversations between Walter and Ruth, who mentions how stars in the sky are peaceful even despite war on Earth, yet still manages to help build their character development further. Like most European movies, "Stars" doesn't follow the typical Hollywood three-act structure, but rather chronicles a time and place from real life, also having enough courage to avoid a happy ending, opting instead for dark and bitter lessons about life: even the smallest clogs in the system supported that evil, and had no excuse for not finding out more information about it.

Grade:+++

A Tale from the Past

Përrallë nga e kaluara; comedy / drama, Albania, 1987, D: Dhimitër Anagnosti, S: Elvira Diamanti, Admir Sorra, Robert Ndrenika, Hajrie Rondo 

An Albanian village, 19th century. Tana persuades her husband Vangjel to marry their 14-year old son Gjino as soon as possible, in case she dies early. An arranged marriage is set up with the 20-year old Marigo, who loves Trim, but her family pressures her to accept Gjino so that they can get a lot of money. A notary and a monk are bribed to present Gjino as an adult man, and wedd him with Marigo. She is annoyed that she has to do all the chores in the household, while the only thing Gjino is interested in her in bed is when she tells him fairytales for good night. Finally, Trim captures the notary and a monk, ties their necks with a rope and demands that they annul the marriage. Gjino gives his blessing to Marigo, who divorces him and can now live happily with Trim.

An adaptation of a satirical book by Andon Zako Cajupi, this film is a biting critique of arranaged / forced marriages with at least one underaged partner, in this case a 14-year old boy Gjino (who looks like he is 12), as well as atavistic traditions in backward areas which are detrimental to society. Dhimiter Anagnosti's direction is standard and routine, with not that much sense for cinema, and, unfortunately, not much sense for humor, either, which reduces the impression of this film with noble messages. "A Tale from the Past" works mostly thanks to the wonderful performance by Elvira Diamanti as Marigo who has to marry the boy, and who sometimes teases his primitive parents to try to wreck the marriage. There are several absurd moments that ridicule the age of the 14-year old groom: the father draws a moustache on Gjino's upper lip, while on their wedding night, Marigo puts Gjino on a rocking cradle, rocks it, and then angrily tips it over. Marigo even jokes by placing a pillow under her blouse, around her stomach area, to feign that she is pregnant, causing panic among Gjino's parents, thereby revealing their awereness that their son is underage and unable to make anyone pregnant. Even more bizarre, Marigo has to work everything in the household, even physical labor such as digging on the field (!) which is usually expected from men, and thus the movie is critical of these traditions where women have to do everything while men just do nothing. The happy ending feels forced and too neat, numbing the sharpness that had more potentials in the concept than in the finished movie we actually get in the end. 

Grade:++

Recognition

Prepoznavanje; thriller, Croatia, 1996; D: Snježana Tribuson, S: Nataša Dorčić, Milan Štrljić, Zoran Čubrilo, Goran Višnjić, Mustafa Nadarević, Ivo Gregurević

During the Croatian War of Independence, Mihajlo, a Serb paramilitary, shot Ana's mother and grandmother at her home in Sunja, Banija, and later raped her. Five years later, Ana lives in Zagreb. At a cafe, she seems to recognize her tormentor, Mihajlo. She hides in her apartment and calls the police, Inspector Kovač. She also visits her sick father in a hospital, a war veteran. Ana admits to her boyfriend, Ivan, that she was raped and had an abortion. On the street, Mihajlo and his friend attack Ana, but Ivan saves her, so they kidnap him and leave his corpse near a bridge. Ana steals Kovač's gun and goes to the coastline to visit her relative. Mihajlo attacks her on the boat in the sea, but she shoots him with a harpoon, and Kovač shoots him additionally with a gun.

The director Snjezana Tribuson made an interesting combination of the thriller genre blended with the topic of local Croatian War of Independence in "Recognition", in which the heroine recognizes her tormentor from the war on the street. While in Panahi's similarly-themed movie "It Was Just an Accident" the protagonist actually does something proactive against his tormentor, here the heroine Ana (Natasa Dorcic) is a too passive victim who spends most of the movie just hiding in her apartment, except for the finale when she finally develops more resourcefulness. Tribuson is able to build up a good mood in the first half, with several neat tricks involving "false alarms"—for instance, we see the antagonist Mihajlo walking towards the camera, and then in the next scene a POV shot of camera approaching Ana sitting on a bench in the park, as someone puts her arm around her, and she is scared, but it just turns out to be her boyfriend, Ivan (Goran Visnjic). Another good, albeit disturbing moment is the one where Ivan is making love to Ana in bed, and there is a match cut of her remembering Mihajlo raping her in the forest, in the same position. The movie suffers from a too slow pacing, as there is too many empty walks instead of the authors trying to enrich it with more ideas and creativity, yet the finale is short and effective, and the setting and concept give it weight.

Grade:++

Incendies

Incendies; psychological war drama, Canada, 2010; D: Dennis Villeneuve, S: Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette, Rémy Girard, Allen Altman

Montreal. Arab Canadian twins Simon and his sister Jeanne arrive to hear the testament of their estranged deceased mother Nawal, and the notary Jean reads them that she shall be burried naked in the ground without a tombstone all until Simon and Jeanne can find their lost dad and brother. Jeanne travels to the Arab country of her mother and questions people about her. She finds out Nawal was a Christian who got pregnant with a refugee who was executed, so she gave her baby boy to an orphanage. When a Muslim-Christian civil war broke out, Nawal shot a Christian militant commander and was imprisoned for 15 years in a camp, where she was raped by a certain Abou Tarek. Nawal became pregnant and gave her twins, Jeanne and Simon, for adoption. Years later, in Canada, Nawal met her first son again, and realized he is Abou who raped her, which caused her health to deteriorate. Upon finding that out, Jeanne and Simon are shocked, but still give Nawal's letter to Abou. 

Sometimes only one sequence is enough to give a movie a certain legendary reputation, a sort of subconscious collective cultural heritage that is respected, and the plot twist pool sequence in "Incendies" is among them. In it, the heroine Nawal, who gave up her baby at birth, but had three vertical dots tattooed on its back side of heel to help identify it, stumbles upon a leg of a man with said three dots standing on the pool platform. When she figures out he is her lost son, and connects what his identity is, the movie reaches such psychological intensity that all its previous flaws are immediately forgiven and forgotten. Canadian director Dennis Villeneueve directed several overrated American movies based on a certain previous 'critical credit', and when the viewers see his early film "Incendies", they will realize this is the origin of his reputation. It is an excellent film. A one that dumps local Canadian issues for the sake of an international issue that has more reach and appeal, in this case a one that (indirectly) contemplates about the consequences of the Lebanese Civil War that spilled over to Canada.

The flaw in this approach is that the movie never names the country, pretending, for some reason, to talk about universal problems about the clash between cultures and religions, and the traumas that pollute the lives of so many people, but without much reason for such forced secrecy. The movie is an adaptation of the eponymous Canadian play by Wajdi Mouawad, who based it on loosely on the life and ordeal of Soha Bechara, who wanted to assassinate Antoina Lahad, the Christian fundamentalist commander of the South Lebanon Army, and was locked up in Khaim prison for 10 years without charges. As the twins, Jeanne and Simon, slowly reveal more about the past of their mother Nawal, the movie turns into a sort of investigative detective story, which slowly creates pieces of a puzzle that connect in the end. Not everything works. Some flaws are the forced, clumsily directed bus massacre sequence which happens almost out of nowhere, without any context or trigger, and the movie's running time is a bit overlong. And as Roger Ebert already pointed out, the logic is not always with this concept: why didn't the mother simply tell their kids the secret while she was alive, instead of writing a letter and sending them to a country where they could be in danger? However, the already mentioned plot twist at the end is brilliant, a sort of amalgamation of concepts found in "Oldboy", Dunaway's character in "Chinatown" and "Halima's Path", all leading to a grand finale that deplores human cruelty which never improves human lives, but only makes it worse for everyone. A highlight of Canadian cinema.

Grade:+++

Magnificent Obsession

Magnificent Obsession; drama, USA, 1954; D: Douglas Sirk, S: Rock Hudson, Jane Wyman, Barbara Rush, Agnes Moorehead, Otto Kruger

Bob Merrick, a spoiled rich man, has a crash while speeding on his speedboat on a lake, but is saved thanks to a resuscitator brough from the home of Dr. Phillips. However, just then Dr. Phillips has a heart attack, and since the resuscitator was not there, he dies. Bob feels sorry for Phillips' widow, Helen. Bob meets a painter, Edward, who tells him that Dr. Phillips persuaded him to achieve his full potentials by simply helping others without asking anything in return. Bob wants to help Helen, but she runs away from him and is hit by a car, and becomes blind. Bob pretends he is Robinson in front of a blind Helen, and sends her to a Swiss city for an eye surgery, but the doctors refuse since there are no prospects for healing her. Bob finally reveals who he is in front of Helen and proposes her, but she leaves without saying where. Years later, Bob graduated medicine and became a brain surgeon. He hears info that Helen is in a hospital, possibly dying from a brain clot, so he operates her himself. She awakens and sees some light, will Bob promises to never abandon her.

It is remarkable that German director Douglas Sirk achieved all his major American successes within only five years in the second half of the 1 9 5 0s before retirement, and that he found his winning formula in melodramas that walk a thin line between a soap opera and art. "Magnificent Obssession" was his first hit, but it is, unfortunately, definitely on the soap opera side of that line, and feels terribly dated today. Sirk has a fine sense for honest emotions and understanding of his characters, refusing to be cynical or mock them, but some plot points would be ridiculous even for the standards of Mexican telenovelas. There is pain, loss, struggles and sensational obstacles, but everything is just so exaggerated that it becomes unintentionally comical at times, especially due to banal dialogue. Here and there some virtues show up, like the comical wisecracks of a little girl who interacts with a blind Helen or the noble messages about philanthropy that is therapeutic for the main protagonst Bob, who undergoes a character arc from a spoiled rich man to a humble, kind, patient doctor. But they cannot lift the movie out of its cliches, especially the accident that leaves Helen blind, or just the notion that Bob actually ruins her entire life just by simply being there around the area. The finale is expressionistic because it is the only instance where huge close-ups of Rock Hudson's and Jane Wyman's faces are shown, breaking the previous medium shots up to that point, but otherwise, it simply does not stimulate that much.

Grade:+

Imitation of Life

Imitation of Life; drama, USA, 1959; D: Douglas Sirk, S: Lana Turner, Juanita Moore, Susan Kohner, John Gavin, Sandra Dee, Dan O'Herlihy, Robert Alda

New York. Lora, a struggling actress, loses her little daughter, Susie, on the beach, but she is luckily found by African American Annie and her mulatto daughter Sarah Jane. Grateful, Lora hires Annie to be her maid and live in her apartment. Lora falls in love with photographer Steve, but dumps him for playwright David who gives her the leading role in a hit play. 10 years later, Lora is famous and meets Steve again, so she takes a break from acting. An 18-year old Sarah Jane is ashamed of her black mother and wants to pretend she is white. Sarah Jane leaves the house, but when Annie catches her as a dancer in a night club, they argue. Sarah Jane refuses any further contact with her mother, who let's her live alone in California. Annie dies from a disease. At her funeral, Sarah Jane returns and expresses remorse at her coffin.

Douglas Sirk's final film before his retirement from directing, "Imitation of Life" works better than his other thin melodramas because it actually has two interesting stories to tell, which enrich his rather banal dialogue: one revolves around the always fascinating notion of a struggling actress trying to make it, in this case Lora (Lana Turner); the other about racial discrimination, in the form of a mulatto teenager, Sarah Jane, trying to pretend to be white, and being ashamed to be seen publicly with her black mother Annie (played endearingly by Juanita Moore). The first story is even today easy to identify with, since Lora admits to Steve that she saved money for five years to move to New York and try to make it there, with the highlight being her meeting with a Harvey Weinstein-like agent, Loomis, who admits that she has to allow to be seduced to secure roles: "If some producer with a hand as cold as a toad wants to do a painting of you in the nude, you will accommodate him for a very small part." - "You're disgusting!" - "Maybe I am. But let me assure you, once you make it, you can be idealistic all of 10 seconds before you die." He is the funniest character in the film, but quickly disappears later on. 

The first half is excellent, but the second half again shows signs of weakness and Sirk's tendency to resort to soap opera repertoire. Film critic Damir Radic called it the "best melodrama ever made", but that doesn't quite absolve it from some errors. The second story proves to be relevant due to its social criticism of the American 50s era, and advocating for a more humanistic world that cares for the character of people, not their physical appearance. Annie is such a noble, kind and affectionate mother, and thus Sarah Jane's shame for her is heartbreaking. As Annie says: "It's a sin to be ashamed of what you are... How do you explain to your child she was born to be hurt?" Some scenes are banal and badly directed (Sarah Jane's boyfriend is seen in only one sequence, when he slaps her upon finding out her mother is black, which is preposterous trash), and the second half "steals" the story too much from the protagonist Lora. However, the finale is so emotional that it could make even those viewers with a heart of stone cry, and make their tears flood the world.

Grade:+++