Reviews
The President (2014)
Road to liberty is a road to finding humanity
Short synopsis:
The old dictator of hypothetical unnamed country faces the last days of his iron-fist rule, with the revolt building within nation and fully blowing up in one day. Moments before the revolution dictator dispatches his family out of the country, but his grandson, a 6-year old child who loves him very much, stays with him and their destinies become inseparable. The revolution breaks out quickly and everything is over in less than a day. Dictator, unprepared for that speedy turn of events, is forced to flee in a very uncommon and improvised way. He disguises himself and his grandson as a street musicians, and blends in with the common people, desperately trying to avoid numerous military patrols who are on the hunt for him, as well as the rage of once-oppressed but now liberated people. The old man and the kid travel to the border trying to reach safety, but it is also a trip of discovery - the discovery of the horrors that the nation experienced during the years of tyranny.
More detailed description with spoilers:
The movie has been shot in Georgia (European country), which was a stand-in for a generic unnamed country. But the main theme of this movie is well known in many countries: the problem of society lacking humane laws, lacking humane treatment of citizens, basic justice and personal liberty. The main concern of the movie is not so much the destiny of dictator himself, although there is a lot of suspense whether he and his grandson will be caught or not. Much more accent was placed on the observation of the disastrous results of his unjust rule. And this is told through the stories of the "heroes" of the movie - numerous characters from the ordinary, common-day folks, who cross their paths with our two protagonists and share the pieces of their life stories with them. These short stories are the main strength of the movie and the reason you should watch it. There is also the fundamental question raised towards the end: What is the appropriate answer to the violence of the regime? Is it more violence, or should the people try to evolve and attempt to start a new system in human, merciful way? Unfortunately, after many stressful and heartbreaking stories learned in the meanwhile, there is a discouraging feeling that the common people will have to walk the long path to be able to raise above their oppressors.
This movie can be understood as a political story, but also, if you take the point of view of the little boy, it can also be seen as a horrifying fable about the strange, cruel and incomprehensible world of the adults. The kid is very young and it is difficult for him to understand what is going on (his grandfather mostly manages to control him by pretending they are playing the game of running and disguising), but there are strong and intense moments when he realizes the life-threatening dangers and his carefree view of the world falls apart, making you feel deep sorrow for the kid's sad fate.
The movie seems a little sloppily conceived and executed in the beginning, it occasionally gives a sense of naivety, but it becomes stiffer and more powerful towards the end and a strong finale is well worth the time you spent with this story.
Podarok Stalinu (2008)
ode to life in time when life was worthless
During Stalin's reign, millions of people were forcefully dislocated throughout Soviet Union. This movie follows destiny of a small Jewish boy who was transported in 1949 to a remote Kazakhstan region along with his grandfather.
Grandfather dies during journey and is extracted from the train at some isolated train station, in order to be buried. The boy, reluctant to depart from the last relative he had, pretends to be dead and is also brought to burial. But, the local worker, an old man of Kazakh tribe, notices that the boy is alive, protects him from the inquiring policeman and brings him to a local village.
The village is poor and almost deserted, surrounded with endless plains and nothingness. There are only few natives and several people who ended up in the village as a veteran exiles. The old man and the beautiful young Russian woman raise the boy as if he was their own, and in time build close and touching relationship, protecting the child from the local authorities, embodied in evil policeman who is constant reminder of their hopeless situation.
The movie confronts the obvious misery and poverty with some understated optimism. The principal characters are undoubtedly doomed, but they will still manage to find some humble joys, no matter how hard their life is. In the end, their effort is going to make the word "human" at least somewhat worthy of its basic meaning.
Warning: there are spoilers in following paragraphs.
The movie is not about atomic bomb, as you might hear, but about the stubborn fight of the human spirit against the ever present miseries of life. Yet, there are sad turns in the story and it doesn't end happily for everybody. Not even for those who escaped Stalin's hands, as we can feel in elegiac narration of the boy who reminiscences all of the events in the autumn of his life.
And yes, there is also an atomic explosion of a bomb on a near test range, which, although subtly announced during the movie, appears so suddenly and brutally that it will terrify the viewer as few movies have done. The bomb is not the key element of the story, but more a symbol of that ruthless hand that oppressed people without least mercy or compassion. It is almost as a cleverly disguised cameo of Stalin himself.
Nacionalna klasa (1979)
Urban comedy with an ironical view of Belgrade society
A racer and his broken car, his no-good mechanic, his pregnant girlfriend, his gay friends, his assistant in double-crossing the military officials, are the basic ingredients of this sparkling comedy. There is also a variety of supporting characters, ranging from owner of Chech car who is prosecuting our hero on account of the car accident, to high politician who should fix a purchase of an expensive racing car as a wedding gift to the racer and his girlfriend who is politician`s daughter. Meanwhile, racer has to manage to avoid recruiting, since he can`t stand the army, and the wedding, since he can`t stand the marriage. Overall, one fine comedy with inevitable race in the end, which can win or lose everything for our hero.
Ko to tamo peva (1980)
The most intelligent comedy ever made in Serbia
The group of people are travelling to Belgrade in an awful bus led by a drunk conductor and his dumb son (who likes to drive with his eyes closed). Their journey is frequently interrupted by many hilarious events which with much irony describe the fall of nation`s spirit in 1941 and are so funny that they are even today used as a common jokes. The man who "steals the show" is a peasant 4 feet tall with his 4 sons who are almost two times bigger than him. In the end, the movie takes one dramatical turn and the trip becomes nothing but a swan`s song of a dying country.