Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
This is a great review of a film that certainly sounds like it’s worth some attention. And despite that, I managed to lose this in my inbox. And this is after I asked Strangelove to send it to me.
Better late than never, though. And I plan to try and track this one down soon. Thanks for the heads-up, man...
Dr. Strangelove here with a review of FINE DEAD GIRLS (FINE MRTVE DJEVOJKE) by Croatian director Dalibor Matanic. The movie is the follow up to his both creatively and commercially successful debut with BLAGAJNICA HOCE ICI NA MORE, and while BLAGAJNICA was an optimistic comedy with lighthearted world view that celebrated traditional values, FINE DEAD GIRLS is a dark, intriguing Thriller/Drama about two students in a concealed lesbian relationship who must face the harsh prejudices of the society that surrounds them when their affiliation is discovered. Besides dealing with their relationship the movie effectively manages to cross-examine the society, its hypocrisy and prejudices, human nature in general… that is certainly no small task for a movie budgeted at meager 250.000$.
When I first saw this movie, a month ago at Motovun Film Festival, I was surprised with its quality, I clearly saw an enthusiastic audience response, but I wondered was it all just because it was the first great local Croatian movie in ages, I wondered could the movie play so successfully to foreign audiences like it played to local. But now, after seeing it again, and judging by the standing ovations and the great buzz this movie got at Sarajevo Film Festival, the most important festival in South-East European region, I’m fairly certain in its overall strengths.
FINE DEAD GIRLS is being called the best Croatian movie in the past 10 years; it has already triumphed at Croatian national festival in Pula and based on the great buzz in Sarajevo where it had a special screening outside of the regular festival program, its reasonable to expect it doing quite well on the other festivals. By making it Matanic has placed himself along with the other promising new talent from the region like Denis Tanovic, Milcho Manchevski, Srdjan Dragojevic, Vinko Bresan...
In the story like in his previous film set in Zagreb, Olga Palkovic plays suggestively Iva, a student that along with her lover Marija, played by Nina Violic rent a suburban apartment in a house next to the railroad, hoping they will find their peace there and a little place where they can freely share their passion. While on first the landlord, her son and other tenants seem like a polite and kindly bunch, thru the course of the movie we gradually get a completely different, dark, evil, hypocritical picture of them that culminates when they discover the girls share a lesbian relationship. The tenement essentially functions as a cross section of society girls live in.
There’s the seemingly nice, but truly evil landlord who’s brilliantly played by Inge Appelt, her malign, skinhead leaning son who first flirts but later ruthlessly rapes one of the girls, there’s a ho’ who pays parts of her rent by servicing the depraved son, an aggressive PTSD suffering war veteran, his abused wife, a gynecologist who performs abortions on nuns,… all of these and other characters are superbly detailed and profiled, and in their interactions, derires, and motivations present the factual state of society they live in. And the world outside is as brutal as the world inside, with raging skinheads and their gypsy victims on the streets. All of this leading to great conflict, violence, death and destruction as the movie progresses.
Thou it cost only 250.000$, the movie was shoot on 35mm and it shows with skillful cinematography. Be it sensual lesbian love scenes, or violent beatings, the cinematographer manages to find the right tone for shooting with the limited resources he’s been given.
It’s a tight little movie with a story about little people, big issues and great, great hate. It has some great acting, great directing, intriguing plot.... So be sure to catch this one at the festivals it will be shown on.
