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Recommend a Movie form Your Country - Monthly

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buah:
Let's try it. Being very interested in world cinema, I'd like to see your recommendations, as well as I'll try to give you an idea of Serbian cinema through its history, from the days it was part of once respectful country Yugoslavia, till present. A movie per month would be enough to start with, I think.

buah:
So here's my first movie. Although today being known by its world's most recognized director, Emir Kusturica, in Serbia anyone would tell you that the other one should be Srdjan Dragojevic

His movie Pretty Village, Pretty Flame shut in 1996 left nobody indifferent. But, let the others speak instead of me


--- Quote ---A MASTERPIECE!, 20 June 2000
10/10
Author: pajcin from America

Being of Serbian heritage, and being born in the U.S.A, I can say that I've seen many films on both sides. America has the Vietnam film, and so a film like THE DEER HUNTER can be said tha it is the best Vietnam film of all time. So, it can be said that Pretty Village... is the best film about the Bosnian war! My family took in a Serbian Soldier that was wonded during that war, lost a leg and eye in battle, and the stories he told are eerily silimar to this film.

I am also a film maker, and I can say that over the many years of seeing brilliant films, this one is one of the best. The film cuts back and forth like a pendulam.... showing us just enough of each character's past to understand why they joined the army... and why they are now starving in a tunnel. The film is heavy on symbolisim... the tunnel represents all that was lost with the break up of Yugoslavia. It represents what ONCE WAS... and now is the setting of a tragic battle.

The film begins with a story about a wedding party that was killed... and yes, its true, a Serbian wedding party was killed before the war broke out... this lead to the bloody conflict. The film captures all the right aspects of the war. It can be said that this film is up there with Emir Kusterica's UNDERGROUND as one of the best films from the former Yugoslavia. Also, not a strange coincedence at the end of the film. This film was shot before the Kosovo conflict... a couple of years before.... but in the end, a image of the tunnel is shown being RE-OPEN! A narrator says that the Tunnel was being re-opened for the international community.... then a man cuts his thumb on the ribbon.... just as he did at the start. The meaning behind this is suppose to indicate that another conflict would errupt in that region! The narrator said the year was 1999. Funny how the film predicted that something would happen that year... which it did: KOSOVO! That is very bizarre!

If you want to see a gripping, and tragic, and painful film... see Pretty Village, Pretty Flame! It is unlike anything you've ever seen!
--- End quote ---


--- Quote ---One of the most powerful war films ever made!, 6 April 2005
10/10
Author: NateManD from Bloomsburg PA

Director Srdjan Dragojevic's Bosnian war film "Pretty Village, Pretty Flame" is an amazing movie about two friends separated by the cost of war. Milan is Serbian, and Halil is Muslim. They are best friends, and we learn much about them through flashbacks in the story. The movie is shown out of sequence, so we see Milan in the hospital, and through the various flashbacks we witness what got him to the hospital. One of the films images which stands out in my mind, is the beginning with the opening of the 1980 peace tunnel. During the celebration the man cuts his finger instead of the ribbon. Then we are forced to move unto the present where peace is far from any mindset. Both friends as children are afraid to go into a tunnel, for they fear an ogre lives in there. All grown up and in the heat of battle, Milan and his squad hide from the Muslims in that particular tunnel, only to be trapped there for days in a grueling stand off between the Serbs and Muslims. They almost become the ogres. Mulan remembers the good times with Halil, before the war broke out. A medical supply truck driven by a recovering junkie gets trapped in the cave also with a female American journalist who is hidden inside. The film is very realistic, but at the same time manages to throw in some dark comedy. Even when Mulan is in the hospital and can hardly move from injuries, he is still hellbent on killing a Bosnian soldier who is in the next room over. All he can think about is his mother and his family who is dead, and his fellow comrade who is almost dead. His other friend, the professor comforts him and tries to convince him that revenge is not worth it. From that point on the film grows more psychologically disturbing. There is so much in this film, that it is hard to describe unless you've seen it or understand the Bosnian conflict. "Pretty Village, Pretty Flame" is far from a typical Hollywood war film. Although the film is told through the view of the Serbian side, No military act is justified. This has to be one of the saddest films I have ever seen. Another image that haunts me even after the film has ended, is the scene where the ground is covered head to toe with dead corpses, including children. Emotional accordion music plays in the background, as the brutal nature of war is shown in a way a Hollywood film would never be able to. "Pretty Village Pretty Flame" is one of the best and underrated war films of all time. See it to remind yourself of how sad and terrible war is. It's a tense dramatic film that stays with you, long after it's over 10/10
--- End quote ---

Here's also Youtube trailer


Enjoy it, if that could be said for a movie that you'll feel veeery uncomfortable while watching it.

Zacca:
Never translated into Italian language  :'(

buah:

--- Quote from: Zacca on March 11, 2010, 12:25:08 pm ---Never translated into Italian language  :'(

--- End quote ---

Too bad, Zacca. And you can't watch it with English subtitles? It's not a hard vocabulary in the script...

Zacca:
Not for me  ;D my english is very drastic :'(

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