Split. Tonina and Tajana are two middle-aged sisters. But while Tonina is taking care of their old and sick mother, changing her diapers and washing her, Tajana doesn't want to participate and lives carefree with her husband Milan, son Ivan and daughter Linda. Tonina wants to help Ivan, who graduated journalism in Zagreb, to find a job in Split. Toinina lives with her husband Bartul and daughter Tana. Tonina secretly buys a flat on the island of Hvar from relative Željka, but since she and Tajana agreed to buy it off together, Tajana is angry. Even Ivan is angry and assaults Tonina in her backyard. Tonina renovates the flat to host tourists there. On their mother's birthday, Tonina reveals the mother signed the house ownership over to her, which angers Tajana, while Ivan even spits on Tonina.
Igor Jelinovic's feature length debut film is a quiet meditation on the clash of two lifestyles: the diligent and the carefree; contemplating what is rewarded more in the end, and if that privilege itself is earned. Filmed in a realistic, raw style, with wide shots done in one take as the camera drives left and right to go from character to character talking, "Koke" finely captures the specific Dalmatian mentality of these colorful characters. The dialogues are rather standard and routine, and there are not that many surprises, which would have helped to transcend the typical mold of these kind of social dramas. Some of the best moments are Tonina watching Ivan's YouTube video where he laments that he does not want to be considered responsible for plastic pollution since he is only the consumer, but not the producer, alleging that the corporations producing plastic are to blame for not making a different kind of product; as well as a few neat lines here and there ("You cannot worry about all the troubles in the world!"). The clash of the two sisters over land ownership (first of a flat in Hvar, and then over the whole house of their mother) slowly consolidates a tighter story out of these episodes, culminating in an intense arguing in the finale during the their mother's birthday party and family gathering, though the story could have even started right where it ends in the film. The locations of Split and Hvar are untypically filmed during winter time, signaling the "cooling" of relationships between the two sisters, whereas Snjezana Sinovcic-Siskov stands out the most in the dignified, ambitious and calm portrayal of Tonina, the leading character.
Grade:++
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