The more I think about it the more comfortable I am with saying
this isn't a war movie. War movies tend to revolve around battles and a
particular set of events that relate to it. You have characters who during the
course of battle /fighting stumble on great realizations and do great things
all while finding an excuse to be patriotic.
The movie, unlike other war movies, does not show you any great depictions of a blissful life that would inspire a desire to protect it, in Serbia. The film starts and ends with a bleak depiction of life in the country. In fact I think the most happy and hopeful moments in the movie was when they were being bombed by the Turks.
From what I know about Serbia and most of the Balkans, after the Ottomans began their painfully long downfall, there has been a lot of ethnic, religious and political unrest and Serbia has often ended up having a lot of problems. In everything from poorly drawn internet comics to bazaar movies like "A Serbian film" people seem to think Serbia is a place full of people suffering from PTSD and war.
I read that the movie was funded by the Serbian government. I had a hard time figuring out why the Serbian government would want to fund a movie that showed questionable characters with bleak lives in a bleaker country.
No one in the film seems all that happy or has hopeful prospects ahead of them. People decided to lie down and die, are desperate to leave the countryside if not the country itself and there seem to have been a huge amount of wars and an ever increasing amount of disabled. Even the rich city girl who seems well educated and modern is left in an extremely bleak position.
The scene where the pilot fly’s over the village was confusing as I wasn't sure if he was an enemy fighter or the people of the village were just being trigger happy. This sort of confused, desperate and slightly hard to comprehend fight really captured the tone of the movie. No one was happy, none of the fights were among equals and there was no hint at happy endings. The drama between the general and solider was there too but it felt out of place albeit intentional. Perhaps this is some way of saying all the little dramas in Serbia at that time took place during similar chaos?
I think the cause for the government funding and the whole purpose of this film isn't to claim that Serbia of the past had a glorious history and brave heroes. The film seems to try and embrace how hard and difficult life in Serbia and later in the 20th century could be with the wars and oppressive rule only adding to Serbia's woes. The melancholy ending of the movie and the words "so on into the next century" suggested that this tone is what the movie wanted you feel and think about life in Serbia.
Which is unusual in the war movie genre, that usually has so much patriotism and confidence in the glorious nature of your country.
I liked what filmed tried to do and its many characters but the pacing was a little off and I found, myself getting distracted or impatient towards the middle. The ending felt unrealistic although very symbolic [of how war spares none].
Overall it was a slightly strange but interesting movie that had a lot of interesting elements that tried to explain to the viewer a strange sort of patriotic feeling about Serbia. I think the movie tries to explain to the viewer the sort of difficulties and hardship a Serbian faces and the odd sort of lives and patriotism that developed as a result, which is done very well.
The movie, unlike other war movies, does not show you any great depictions of a blissful life that would inspire a desire to protect it, in Serbia. The film starts and ends with a bleak depiction of life in the country. In fact I think the most happy and hopeful moments in the movie was when they were being bombed by the Turks.
From what I know about Serbia and most of the Balkans, after the Ottomans began their painfully long downfall, there has been a lot of ethnic, religious and political unrest and Serbia has often ended up having a lot of problems. In everything from poorly drawn internet comics to bazaar movies like "A Serbian film" people seem to think Serbia is a place full of people suffering from PTSD and war.
I read that the movie was funded by the Serbian government. I had a hard time figuring out why the Serbian government would want to fund a movie that showed questionable characters with bleak lives in a bleaker country.
No one in the film seems all that happy or has hopeful prospects ahead of them. People decided to lie down and die, are desperate to leave the countryside if not the country itself and there seem to have been a huge amount of wars and an ever increasing amount of disabled. Even the rich city girl who seems well educated and modern is left in an extremely bleak position.
The scene where the pilot fly’s over the village was confusing as I wasn't sure if he was an enemy fighter or the people of the village were just being trigger happy. This sort of confused, desperate and slightly hard to comprehend fight really captured the tone of the movie. No one was happy, none of the fights were among equals and there was no hint at happy endings. The drama between the general and solider was there too but it felt out of place albeit intentional. Perhaps this is some way of saying all the little dramas in Serbia at that time took place during similar chaos?
I think the cause for the government funding and the whole purpose of this film isn't to claim that Serbia of the past had a glorious history and brave heroes. The film seems to try and embrace how hard and difficult life in Serbia and later in the 20th century could be with the wars and oppressive rule only adding to Serbia's woes. The melancholy ending of the movie and the words "so on into the next century" suggested that this tone is what the movie wanted you feel and think about life in Serbia.
Which is unusual in the war movie genre, that usually has so much patriotism and confidence in the glorious nature of your country.
I liked what filmed tried to do and its many characters but the pacing was a little off and I found, myself getting distracted or impatient towards the middle. The ending felt unrealistic although very symbolic [of how war spares none].
Overall it was a slightly strange but interesting movie that had a lot of interesting elements that tried to explain to the viewer a strange sort of patriotic feeling about Serbia. I think the movie tries to explain to the viewer the sort of difficulties and hardship a Serbian faces and the odd sort of lives and patriotism that developed as a result, which is done very well.
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