VojkanR

Deca zla (2023)

A brilliant, masterfully written, beautifully shot gem with a well hidden message

It is often said that TV now produces much higher quality content than cinema, and while I don't fully agree, this show definitely makes me realise why the argument is being made.

It's a show that doesn't rely on flashy effects, over-the-top drama, pandering to whomever, CGI (a welcomed departure from most Serbian TV shows), enormous stakes etc. Instead, Children of Evil (Deca zla) stands out with its well crafter storyline, wonderful photography, moody atmosphere and layered characters. Now the last one is something we really don't get to see too often these days and it is something I was perhaps the most impressed by.

From the opening scenes "Children of Evil " struck me with its beautiful, moody photography. I can tell someone was a fan of the latest Batman film. The camera work is top-notch, not always consistent with the overall aesthetics, but still top notch for a TV show. The way they use lighting adds a lot to the show's atmosphere and mood. It's a dark show. That atmosphere gives us all the details left out of the dialogue, and for someone like me it is the key component reminding me of the golden age of creative, moody, neo-noir like Serbian cinema - the 90's.

I can not, of course, get into too much detail about the story itself, but it was very clever, grounded in reality with some very realistic motives. It kept us on edge, guessing, and just as you think you have it all figured out, something happens that makes you go back and reinterpret your theory. What a quality crime drama is supposed to do. It's a complex narrative with lots of twists and turns, but those never felt like complexity for complexity's sake. It's not rushed, what is more, there were a couple of episodes around the middle when it could've picked up the pace a bit, but nothing too bad. They take their time to develop the plot, and the characters. The writing shows a deep understanding of human psychology and relationships, making it both intellectually stimulating and emotionally touching. It certainly helps that court/crime drama is written by an actual judge and one that is among the rare uncorrupt ones on top of that.

Characters are perhaps the best part of this show, they are all refreshingly imperfect. Everyone has some moral flaws, character imperfections, weaknesses but also some redeeming qualities and justifiable motives. Relatable even. Now that isn't new, but does seem to be often forgotten in modern filmmaking. There is no moral high ground, no Mary Sues, no preachiness. They're not your typical heroes and villains. Instead, they're real people with flaws and personal, even relatable struggles. Each character, both the 'villains' and the 'good guys' are well-developed with their own backstories and motivations whether you like them or agree with them or not.

Which brings me to the actors themselves. The choice for the pompous, yet moral, but deeply flawed and vulnerable protagonist was a great one. Apart from him, the veterans of Serbian cinema and theatre certainly stand out (my personal favourite - the alcoholic Uncle) but no one as much as the heartbreakingly troubled, haunted Branko, what a performance! Though the younger characters do very well, there's a noticeable gap in quality and consistence of their performance. One side character absolutely blew me away - the corrupt, sociopath of a 'Minister', but I'll come back to that bit later. The only main character that over-acted a bit was the state persecutor Basta. She did have a complex character but the performance was a bit overly dramatic, theatre like at times. But all actors' ability to convey a wide range of emotions is really impressive and adds to the overall quality of the show.

Last but not least, the hidden commentary, and I stress hidden, because that subtle art is definitely lost today. This is not just entertainment; it's a thought-provoking experience. While the main plot is emotionally impactful leaving us with a strong moral dilemma, it is the subplots that dive deep into the almost unsalvageable, corrupt state of Serbian legal or even political system as a whole. The eeriest part of this show aren't the crimes, or the crimes that beget crimes, it is the fact that while the story itself is fiction, none of the things that happen in the show are. All of this is happening in Serbia as we speak - the corrupt judicial system under the control of a one party State, the corrupt police, the utter immorality of entirely tabloidised media also under the control of the State, the cooperation between mafia and the State, the rare windmill Crusaders and the unresolved past...I appreciate that the show was subtle enough about it and it allows those not familiar with the country to write it off as (probably exaggerated piece of ) fiction. It isn't intrusive. But for those who are familiar, the eerie similarities between the character of the Minsiter and current Serbian president, the demagogy, the MO, the violence and aggression behind the veneer of peace and tolerance...it's is too real at time.

I highly recommend it to anyone who appreciates quality television. And I hope we get to see more from this writer and this team.

Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan (2019)

Exceeded expectations, fell short of greatness, plagued by modern action movie tropes

A 2019 war film was not something I had high hopes for. Ever since we entered digital era coupled with Marvel spectacle era, war films have lost their authenticity and impact, turning more into surreal action oriented spectacles than gritty, dusty, horror filled human dramas. And while this one sadly isn't entirely devoid of these tropes and 'sins' of modern filmmaking it did manage to be old school just enough to both surprise me and make me invested in it. However, towards the end, it sort of caved in, and unlike the soldiers it portrayed, surrendered to 21st century CGI infested, action film tropes.

I knew nothing about the Aussie/NZ participation in Vietnam war. I didn't need to to enjoy this one. Reading the other reviews - I also don't think every film has a moral obligation to lecture us on deeper ethical, political or whatever context. It's been done to death, and I don't think it was ever that necessary.

Having said that, if you do the classic war film, with a plot as simple as this, you have to do an immaculate job.

There are some stories which are simply stories about groups of people in a situation. Good enough for me. We don't need epic spectacles, large picture-ing and Hollywood style moralising in each of these, especially not in 2020's. Long ago Kubrick made a politically and morally ambiguous masterpiece - FMJ, focused solely on soldier's experience in this hellish environment, the loss of child like innocence and the burden of surviving it all, and it was the best Vietnam war film to date. Almost no political context and absolutely no 'The message' or 'educating the audience'.

Unfortunately for this one, it doesn't quite reach those heights, but I welcome its effort.

It's a straightforward story of a group of soldiers trapped in a desperate battle against a numerically superior and equally relentless enemy while relying on few experienced NCOs and conflicted leadership of questionable competence. Sure, its somewhat predictable and follows a beaten path, but so do burger and fries and I don't see many complaining. In the age of politicised pretentiousness everywhere, this approach is refreshing even.

The movie does a good job of outlining the situation, the Aussie platoons' positions, the conflicting orders and logistical difficulties. It is also one of the few films that made an effort to accurately portray the chain of command and the decision making process in the field. It also does a good job of portraying the sudden-ness of death on the battlefield, the seconds in which situations changes, the abruptness of 'all hell breaking loose' and adaptability of soldiers etc. I also appreciate that we didn't get any 'enemy' perspective in this, keeping them illusive and mysterious.

It also looks good at times, costume department did the best job, especially with protagonists. The look isn't consistent though, and some scenes look more TV movie like than others.

Speaking of flaws, the more I think of it the more they pop up. Some understandable, some completely unnecessary, some just stylistic choices I simply couldn't agree with.

The action, despite being often fast paced and easily followed, with some surprisingly good practical effects, is ironically enough, also what disappointed me the most. Even though good enough at times, it went into CGI/Marvel/Chinese WWII films territory way too often for my taste. We don't need to follow a CGI shell, we don't need to see where every bullet hit the enemy, not every close CGI hit needs to be 5 cm from the feet, and ultra-slowmo is just...wrong. Shooting in films is by definition less shocking and impactful, and if you put it on screen too often you'll just make a cartoon out of it. This film unfortunately did exactly that. Seemed like a video game at times. The enemy's lack of tactic and only occasional nod to Viet Cong, which I applaud anyhow, made the protagonist's last stand seem more like the Vietnamese's utter incompetence than Aussie undeniable heroism.

The worst or the most disappointing part of the film, however, is the climax. The drama of the last stand was just not dramatic enough. It was melodramatic, but that's not what it supposed to be. Riddled with nonsense slow motion and Bollywood like melodrama, it is utterly disappointing. The initial ambush was way more desperate and much better done overall.

One last thing, a praise, goes to the fact each character was based on the real person, yet it looked very organic, not at all forced. I didn't get into the soldiers' actual experiences and situations on that day, but each soldier had its own qualities, personality etc. Something you'd expect from a miniseries.

It could've been much better, and it probably would've been, if made 30 years ago, but I like where it went, most of the time, and I would like to see more war films follow a similar approach, preferably avoiding some of its flaws.

Die Frau des Piloten (2021)

Clever idea, lost steam halfway through and ended with a whimper

The concept itself was pretty solid - a story about one of the most notorious terrorists the world has ever seen cleverly disguised in a family/love drama about the couple of immigrants struggling not only with finding their own place under the sun but also prejudices and difficulties within these communities. The execution, however, less solid.

First 1/3 of the film is good, setting up the story, the characters and the plot. We get to see this very confident, flamboyant, opinionated and at times aggressive lad coupled with a seemingly down to earth girl, who, as the occasional atypically wild behaviour would show, is dealing with some sort of pressure herself. We'll soon learn what or better say who is the reason for that as her relationship with the lad grows more serious, setting her on a path of conflict with her mum. All of it is made more believable by a very interesting mix of German, English, Turkish and Arabic.

We also learn, relatively quickly, that the forbidden love story isn't all this movie is about as the lad grows more conservative and more affected by the religion and Islamic idea(l)s.

And that is when the weaknesses of the film start to show. This sinking into the radicalism is not very well shown and it feels artificial and half hearted. Apart from a maternity ward scene, we just don't get that, nor the wife's position on that part. The fact the movie structure are these five chapters with huge chronological leaps doesn't help. In short - we don't get enough of what will become pivotal to the film. It just ends up feeling disjointed and unfocused.

The weakest part of the film is, regrettably, the ending. The story slows down as it progresses, instead of speeding up, allowing you enough time to anticipate the supposed plot twist, which again, is very slow and anticlimactic. There's almost no drama, as the film continued to be as melancholic as the female protagonist.

When your entire film is a seemingly slow burning love story with a huge twist, it has to be a contrast to everything that preceded it. It has to pull the rug from under your feed. This one just didn't. It was an emotionally barren, unimpactful ending.

The same types of films where the tone change, climax and twist was infinitely better and more emotionally charged in famous Hair (1979) and a lesser known Serbian film Premeditated Murder (1995)

Jin ling shi san chai (2011)

The plot sounds very dramatic and tense...the movie just...isn't

A tremendously important topic. A story incredible as it is brutal...disparaged by the terrible approach taken by the writers and the director.

Instead of witnessing an unimaginable horror that Nanjing massacre victims experienced, and in case of lucky ones, survived to be tormented by their whole lives by...end perhaps engaged in nail biting drama of a desperate fight for moral and physical survival...we get a ridiculously slow burning mix of saccharine love story with distinctly Chinese cinematic/theatric flavour to it and awkwardly surreal Marvel-ish action sequences, also a prominent feature of Chinese action flicks. For a whopping 146min!

The weirdly narrator or announcer like dialogue that might work in Asian languages or cinema, translates as really artificial and 'on the nose' here. The characters thus come off as ridiculously caricaturised. At the same time the topics that should be the focus of the story - aren't.

The film follows an unlikely hero (Bale) stumbling upon a group of girls in a Catholic church in the middle of the Japanese occupation and utter destruction of Nanking. Seemingly immoral and corrupt, Bale's character will end up getting involved into an attempt to save the girls, joined by a group of prostitutes, from the nightmare of Nanking.

The premise seems alright, even if fictional. But the execution is not quite. The film is nowhere nearly dramatic as the plot outline.

It starts of with this prolonged action sequence that in times looks quite nice, before it dissolves into overly dramatic, nonsensically unrealistic, slow motion infested festival of video game tropes. But alas...the sequence ends with the protagonist, an American coroner on a mission to bury a deceased priest in a local Catholic church, barely escaping mayhem and reaching the church, where a puzzled and petrified group of schoolgirls and one orphan boy turned pastor greet him. They are, despite their unwillingness, joined by a group of prostitutes who escaped the Japanese invaders in the most unrealistic of ways. The best part of the film is thus over.

For the remaining 2+hrs we don't get a sense of real endangerment of this little oasis of peace in what was supposed to be a horrific place of one of the worst war crimes of WWII. Apart from a single attack of Japanese soldiers and two appearances of awkward yet tame Imperial Japanese officer, nothing really happens. So much so that the plot needed two characters to suddenly decide on a most ludacrous move in order for the audience to (finally) be exposed to Japanese cruelty.

The climax of the film is anything but. Even if on paper it was supposed to be the most dramatic part of the film it is anything but. So much tears and melodrama and the never ending buildup to...a 30 second absolutely zero tension, anticlimactic resolution that left me feeling tricked. I'm grateful I didn't reach for the glass of water otherwise I would've missed the entire thing.

What a shame.

Midway (2019)

Full of potential, overly ambitious, poorly executed though historically accurate, ended up feeling like a amusement park ride.

I wanted to love this movie, I really did. The real life event is so fascinating - history gave us the most incredible script one could ask for. They just needed to provide some dramatisation and some early 2000's Pearl Harbour-esque battle scenes (and no soap opera elements) and you've got yourself a war movie masterpiece we really needed. I thought they couldn't fail.

And same as Nagumo during his 15min dilemma (which the movie failed to represent apart from a 5 second stare), I was wrong...they failed in both aspects.

The 138min film takes about half of that time to even reach Midway, unnecessarily bombarding us with over 6 months of ultra-abbreviated versions of major events in the Pacific Theater only to rush even quicker through all the incredible events of the battle itself. Instead of experiencing the awe inspiring battle hour by hour, gaining at least basic understanding of extraordinary events and some unbelievable coincidences, it's over before you get your head wrapped around chaotic context-less events unfolding on screen in rapid succession. Movie feels like a bunch of trailers patched together. We have no idea why were these large scale attacks important, what is its cost, what are the consequences and results apart from very orange explosion here, very orange burning plane there...On top of it, we have no time to connect with any of the characters so the entire thing feels emotionally empty. Human cost is reduced to data on a chalkboard and you don't care, how could you anyway? There's nothing and no one to care about. Yes, it is obvious that writers did their homework, but this film is another testament to the fact historical accuracy isn't enough and can't be its own purpose, that much more is needed for a good film. Similarly to Japanese admirals who suffered from it at Midway, this sort of tunnel vision of filmmakers turned a potent project into a burning wreck.

So, in a bit more detail, when we finally get to the battle itself halfway through - there's very little to no tension in the prelude to the battle, and things would continue in the same way as some, admittedly historically accurate, events get fired rapidly at you, disappearing even quicker, with absolutely no time to process them nor much needed context, so the impact, very movie like drama or importance of these real life events fly over our heads. There's also a weird disbalance is the amount of time dedicated to some small events like attempted suicide attack of a damaged bomber vs foundational strategic decisions of the battle we end up knowing little to nothing about.

-We don't get a good enough idea of just how wrong the Japanese were or what they thought initially. Nor how persistent in their flawed tactics. Film doesn't clearly communicate positions of the fleets either, so when you hear 'enemy fleet spotted to the NE' they really count on your knowledge about the battle.

• There is nothing about key issue of bad, even disastrous usage of Japanese reconnaissance planes, or even the cloudy weather, most movie plot device like thing imaginable. You end up having 0 knowledge of why events unfolded in a way they did.

• You blink and miss the fact Midway learned about Japanese approaching in c0530 when Japanese finally lost the element of surprise or that they didn't finish off the base in the first run despite more than 20% losses, and had to return once more at least.

• You have no idea how (Japanese) carrier ships operate and what sort of logistics is involved in rearming planes, and fighters, and why is it impossible to launch counter attacks while being under attack. It results in very hallow video game-ish interpretation of battle scenes.

• You have absolutely no idea about how frustratingly low the hit rate was for initial US bombing attacks that lasted for hours (minutes in the film), and only a vague one about the high cost to Americans. Making later hits, full 3hr of attacks later, that more important and impactful.

• You also don't get the idea of why these US attacks were important in keeping Japanese pinned down, despite not damaging the fleet and costing so many lives of US pilots.

• The aforementioned Nagumo's dilemma whether to send an attack on newly discovered US fleet of unknown structure or finish off Midway base.

-The importance of poor handling of bombs and torpedoes during Japanese rearming so we don't quite understand the spectacular explosions afterwards.

• The importance of Thach's fighter escort which relieved unprotected bombers for the first time and it attracting the Japanese fighters who left the carriers unguarded in the key moment so the bombers could hit Japanese carriers.

• The fact Japanese carriers mostly relied on fighter protection rather than AA guns, making Thach's action pivotal.

• Entire counterstrike of Japanese Hiryu carrier is done with in one passing remark?! Blink and you'll miss it. Of course, we learn nothing about grave mistake of Japanese who wrongly assumed they were attacking one of the remaining 2 US carriers, potentially bringing battle to a more uncertain outcome. Not to mention we learn nothing about the fate of the unlucky yet stubborn Yorktown carrier.

Etc.

Many of these things were indeed mentioned, touched upon, so we can see that the filmmakers read about it, they just couldn't make it into a coherent story. I've seen YouTube videos vastly more exciting and clear than this 100.000.000$ film.

And these are pivotal moments only, what the entire film should be about. I'm not even going into less key elements like the Japanese scuttling scene, where we get nothing about the enormous, perhaps unexpectedly high loss of life among Japanese personnel, only tons of melodram and stoicism instead.

Last but not least, the filmmaking, the CGI. It's horrendous. The movie looks like a video game. It doesn't look serious at all. Worthless scenes, too much cheap spectacle, too much of...everything. Its budget was by no means small, but when and if you have any sort of technical difficulty, you don't opt for the Marvel like plane into the camera spectacle oriented 0 believability scenes. As far as filmmaking goes, it was abysmal. Everything was CGI, every background is a green screen, sometimes 1998 level CGI. Pearl Harbor was a terrible historical film but at least its action was believable and authentic looking, not to mention earlier ones. This on the other hand...I've played video games that felt more real.

I give it a 5 only because it seem to have had a 'good heart' and indented to tell all those stories from in a historically accurate way. Also because of few good performances like Harrelson, Wilson, Kunimura and Quaid. But it's one of the lowest quality war films out there, despite being historically accurate generally speaking.

Der Hauptmann (2017)

Phenomenal on so many levels, atmospheric and authentic, rushed ending took away 1 star

It is not easy to single out the most impressive aspect of this film. The story it is based on (and parts that deviate from the true story in no way diminish the quality of the film as its metaphor surpasses the real life story of Harold), the acting, the photography or the fantastic atmosphere and aura of authentic...surrealism in captured so masterfully. Even the music. I'd also say this is one of those rare examples where going for a black and white is better than giving us color. It isn't just a cheap trick, as in some other films, it works better that way here. All the right choices were made.

It is said that the director got inspiration from a personal/subjective, not necessarily objective, view of the past events seeing an exaggerated model of the prison camp Harold committed crimes in made by one of the inmates, from memory. And such approach and certain level of augmented, dream like reality, necessary in war related film, as war itself is often described as surreal, dream like experience, is what gave it a very unique flavour. One that I really liked, reminding me somewhat of Kurosawa's black and white films.

I won't dive into the plot too much, it is a tragic tale of a man corrupt by lust for power. The character arc in the film is perhaps a bit greater than in real life Harold (as the guy seem to have always been power hungry, valor stealing type), but it makes for a stronger point. Almost a Shakespearean tale.

The only minor gripes I have about it, and why I gave it a 9 out of 10 is the CGI towards the end, which I found cheap looking and an unnecessary cop out (explosions should've been done practically, this film deserved it), as well as, and this one I am less certain about, the somewhat anti climactic ending, or at least the pivotal scene which we knew was coming, but perhaps expected it to be a bit more tense or dramatic than it actually was. First part of the film set such high standard for the tension that ending felt a bit rushed.

Otherwise, a gem I can't believe I didn't discover earlier. Definitely in the top 10 films of its type.

You (2018)

First season great - the rest is clearly improvised soap opera with ridiculously intense woke agenda.

It is pretty clear that an interesting and internally consistent story of an admittedly original concept of the first season was a product of a creative effort...which definitely fell apart in terrible seasons 2 and 3.

It is a show that successfully finished the first season...only to take a ridiculous dive into the mediocre, improvised, illogical mess with a sole purpose of parroting pretty well known hyper 'woke' slogans with a subtlety of a wrecking ball, and acting just as sophisticated. Characters suddenly turn into cardboard cutouts (straight white males are really fun because they have only two types 1-sadistic a hole and 2-growling barbarian), the lead forgets what he is, and the story is all over the place.

By the 72th time you hear about a female character who is by definition a domestic abuse victim (whose husband is always from the same race), 'white privilege' or hear the very female-feminist inner thoughts of a...male protagnoist...while the show is desperate to keep you interested with out of nowhere sexual fetishes (where straight husband is okay with swinging, and 'fooling around' with another husband but looses it when he's supposed to sleep with another wife!? ) and what not...you'll already be scrolling your Twitter feed, waiting it to be over, like a bad dream.

What a waste...

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Overrated, pretentious, exaggerated, 300-ized version of a beloved franchise

When the first Mad Max movie appeared in our country we were overwhelmed by the grit, the tension and the unforgiving story of Max, a vulnerable hero fighting a loosing battle against chaos, anarchy and loss. The curious world of post apocalypse captured our imagination as much as the infinitely cool muscle cars, bikes and leather jackets. We were being introduced to a pop culture phenomenon that was Mad Max. One fully realised after a full blown action spectacle Mad Max 2 appeared soon after. It was Mel, the leather, the tension, the never before seen action - the realism of surreal world that changed action movie forever. And we followed. Then came the 1985 Beyond Thunderdome, cool, but lacking much of what made the previous ones great. We started going back to the first part and appreciating it more and more, learning about how it was filmed, researching into it's ambiguity, its subtle message, its classically trained theater cast. It was cherished as the ultimate victory of creative spirit and inspiration over all other factors.

And then, after 30 years (?!) we get another 'sequel'. By the look of it, it was immediately apparent it was a reboot, and one of the worst possible kind. Miller did his homework, he knew what sells these days and he went for that long deserved Oscar. Unfortunately for the franchise and fortunately for him - he made it. He made a 300-ized version of his own franchise pandering to every possible, relevant, audience group - except the diehard fans. Youngsters were happy, political activists were happy, the bored casual moviegoer was happy. Everyone clapped at the emperor pretending they don't see his nakedness. In an era of pretentious art critics who can find meaning in just about anything - his move was, marketing wise, a brilliant one.

The film had it all, plenty of CGI, explosions and action everywhere. More action. Strong and independent female character and her sidekick - Max. Even more action and more explosions, a lot of quotable, logo-able overdesigned things everywhere, and even more action. It didn't matter that it made no sense, that it forgot who was it supposed to be about or what happened to the Interceptor few movies ago. It didn't matter that self plagiarism is also plagiarism and that Road Warrior DVD is still available. None of it mattered if there's enough tumbling and twisting and screaming and super cool 3D effect steering wheels coming at you at the theater. Decay was replaced with flaming guitars and Max's human vulnerability mistaken for incompetence. Have I mentioned how over-designed everything was.

This was a CGI galore Mad Max didn't deserve to be known for in this generation already overdosed on Marvel and Michael Bay's produce. What is most tragic here is the fact it was G.Miller behind this. It wasn't someone else destroying his legacy as it happened with Star Wars. This was a creative self destruction.

I though about giving it a 3 star rating just for the fact there were some practical effects somewhere under all that CGI, computerised, insta-filterised cacophony, but I couldn't make myself do it.

Thank you gods for DVD technology. I am rewatching Mad Max trilogy every year since 2015 and I am still unable to decontaminate fully.

Profesionalac (2003)

Tragic, but at the same time hilarious homage to a dramatic decade..or two.

Profesionalac (The Professional), submitted by Serbia for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2003, features a truly remarkable story, dealing with recent, but dramatic events in Serbia/Yugoslavia. Adapted from directors' own play, Profesionalac is one of those rare Serbian movies that can actually be understandable to foreign crowd, painting a dark, yet still optimistic portrait of turbulent Serbia of the 1990's.

Through the story of Theodore (Teja) Kraj, former writer and opponent to Milosevics regime(actor Lecic was in fact a passionate opponent to the regime at the time, so his footage on some of the documentaries seen in movie is authentic!), now days a publisher company manager, and a retired Secret Service (infamous DB) agent Luka Laban, who was on Teja's case for a decade, we learn about two major epochs in modern Serbian history.

First being the repeated attempts throughout the 1990's, by impoverished nation, drawn to a civil war in Croatia and Bosnia, exhausted by dictatorship, NATO bombing, violence and censorship...to bring down the communist/nationalist dictator Slobodan Milosevic and his cataclysmic regime. Attempts that led to eventual civil uprising were spearheaded by intellectual elite and younger generations, mostly students...Teja was a university professor, in touch with both groups(both professionally and personally). As such, he was targeted by Milosevic's puppets (ideologist, hardcore communist Laban), who, apart from ''being a professional'', had a grudge on Teja of his own.

Second one being the post Milosevic's era (brought down in 2001.) of transition and privatization, wave of closing down factories and firms, workers loosing jobs...shown in the movie through the present strike of the dissatisfied workers/possibly even supporters of the former regime (which was indeed supported mostly by older people / communists, rural population and poorly educated, lowest working class). That problem actually marked that entire period of Serbia's awakening in the 2000's.

Hovewer, despite the magnificent plot, beautifully put together through the numerous flashbacks in which puzzle is finally being put together (by Teja) when he learns the background of all his grievances in the past decade, the strongest point of this movie is an emotion.

Emotion you have to share with a generation whose youth/prime was spent in fighting with a regime, whose lives were ruined by hell-bent police officers and agents, and who sacrificed all of that, voluntarily, so those to come could live free ''...kids? Your kids are exactly why I am doing all of this...'' - Teja.

Emotion so beautifully brought to us by a superb soundtrack. Melancholic bohemian Serb mandolin, mixed with actual documentary footage, leaves a participant of the events, like myself, in tears, and others, hopefully moved.

Somewhat tragic, melancholic, but also hilarious at times, The Professional is one of those European movies you should see even if you aren't Serb...especially if you aren't Serb.