Celestial Body (2000)
When two enemy sides ex-change the captives in the middle of a minefield, a nameless man without identity and memory, subsequently named Jakov, leaves the column unnoticed and wanders around in order to minimize other people's sufferings. On his dangerous journey, he meets a female first-fighter who runs an orphanage, a commander who got back from Foreign legion and runs a defense line from a disco club, and goes through many other adventures only to end up in the endless backwaters of the Neretva river where war threats to arrive.
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The Age of Commercialism
Good concept, poorly executed.
It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
Well, if you're Croatian, this movie seems quite confusing. And I have a feeling it's quite complicated for the rest of the world :) But this is something special. Magical camera, a very special story. This is a world best described like a destroyed world in a 80s cartoon "Thundarr the Barbarian". The only thing that is constant if feeling of being disoriented. There is a war, but there is no clear battle line. The main character, brother of Lukas, the director, Filip Nola is just brilliant. Where he is going, nobody knows. He is meeting many figures. Croatian soldiers, local orphan girls, he is being captured by Serbian rebellions, and while the rest end up badly, he is making friends with local rebellion commander. The only constant is, he is surviving, while other, aren't. And the end is quite fascinating. It's a begging. In all war misery, there is something that makes this movie so human, so warm. A really something that can't be described. This movie deserves to be seen.
The cinematography is stunning, and it's worth seeing just for that. Like many of the war films coming out of the Balkans, this one can be a bit confusing. It's not a simple, linear narrative, but this serves the film. War and trauma are disorienting, terrible, and occasionally funny in their dark absurdity. The central character is oddly charismatic, and his wanderings are spellbinding. Unlike so many Hollywood films, we have no idea where this guy's going or how it will all end. Nola succeeds in transporting viewers into a strange new world, and films don't get much better than that.