User Reviews

Though good actors in general, Nebojsa and Emir turned to be poor choices to play two brothers from an old Herzegovinian village. For a foreign audience, that might be no problem, as the actors' talk would be dubbed or translated anyway. But for anyone local, it borders with ridiculous to listen to two most implausible pronunciations that the two fellows are putting in, supposedly being born and having spent their childhoods in that little Croatian village. No time in Zagreb or in Sarajevo can change a kid's accent so badly that when they come home years later, they speak as if from another planet. There was a certain amount of effort on their parts to mimic the local dialect, but vastly insufficient, and it beats the mind that the director did not warn the actors, or didn't at least cut-out and redo the parts when they use the most inappropriate words and accents in their speech. Given that the whole movie is based on a rather simple point (the old father never loved his wife, and behaved accordingly), and that the artsie-fartsie aspect was to provide the completion, the failure to make the language element (much) more realistic is a real drawback here. It feels as if they just filmed whatever came out of actors' mouths first, without any retrying or correcting.

I watched it during Sarajevo Film Festival. Didn't have idea about it. Than- surprise- excellent photography, beautiful lines, great performance. Didn't want it to stop. It was touching and honest story where I found myself totally in it. Although I'm not sentimental fool on some places I could see my own family with their eternal silence that is always on a border- trying to fix things for better future. Usually with no solution, no words, or just hard words.. Here you have everything- and you believe in better days!

Finally movie from this region that makes you wanna watch other movies! Congrats!

I like it! This movie is very good and significant example of good screenplay, good photography and good directing. From every single frame you can feel heat of Herzegovina's land as a metaphor regarding relationship between characters in the movie. Nebojsa Glogovac did a great role! He is at the same time gentle and silent, but you can feel volcano inside of him. Very good role indeed !!! Natasa Janjic has something ... She was in the sam acting class with mrs. Roščić and Lambaša, I think it is very talented generation ... The only thing I was wandering is war in the background of this movie. I assume that author wanted to get added level of pshycology context, but all in all I think that all thing works without war too ... Maybe even better ...

The story starts with a not so harmonious trio of man, wife and son, who are heading to a family gathering that will span the whole week. We feel their doubts about how the coming week will develop, given yet unspoken things that happened many years ago.

Until now everyone involved kept his feelings about past events to himself. Even worse, none of the underlying differences ever came clearly in the open. All of that remained under the surface. The coming week may either be riddled with hefty arguments and loaded with a heavy atmosphere, or the silence may continue with the status quo still existing without change.

The real main character of the film appears in the form of a donkey, bought in a impulse, without any real purpose short of being tied to a tree outside the house. But then comes the surprise: Remember the notion "catalyst" from chemistry lessons?? The donkey serves as a perfect example: though not actively participating in the events as they develop inside and outside the house, its role as a "catalyst" becomes very clear while being used as a sort of (albeit wordless) therapist. Everyone on his or her turn entrusts the donkey with their feelings and their plans, and subsequently acts as if the donkey officially stamped these.

Eventually, no stones are left unturned. Mutual relations are clarified step by step, at the same time enlightening us viewers about what happened before. We see everyones attitudes change in the process. Observing the positive mood in which the family members say goodbye at the end of the week, one would expect that all of them will live happily ever after.

That is where the movie ends. It leaves me with the idea that I saw an excellent movie with an intriguing theme, that also succeeded in keeping my attention from beginning to end.