Review of Maratonci trce pocasni krug

Coming from Croatia, I am very much familiar with Serbian cinema. Serbian humor is very much appreciated throughout the former Yugoslavian republics, and this movie is one of the prime examples of it. For those of you not familiar with it, well you're missing on a lot. Unfortunately, a lot of it depends on language so if you're not acquainted with Serbian language and culture, a lot of the jokes will not seem so funny. What is even more disappointing for an average European or American viewer, not being properly introduced to a specific laid - back Balkan mentality can also constitute a huge obstacle in understanding many nuances and sides of this and many more movies, filmed throughout the Balkan peninsula. Well, what can you do? I guess that's life. Somebody gets to live in a secure and prosperous geographical region, while somebody else gets to live in a war zone for hundreds of years. Hey, at least you get to have a specific sense of humor. That sure makes it right, doesn't it? Its like with the African Americans. They have been slaves for 300 years, but they have completely taken over the NBA in the last couple of years. See how God takes care of everyone? Lets get back to the movie ( another example of Balkan mentality is inability to focus on what you are doing ). It tells the story of an interesting, all - male family of morticians ( the oldest member of the family is 150 years old ). The youngest family member is somewhat on a crossroad, since he feels neglected and wants to take his part of the company and marry a local mobsters daughter. This mobster is actually a sick bastard who provides the family with coffins. You see, all they do is dig out the old used coffins and sell them as new ones. It is the way their company "operates", but recently they invested in a brand new cremation unit they are dying to test... What bothered me with this movie is that many scenes felt a bit too obvious, something which many people seem to neglect. Sometimes I had the impression that the writer forced some situations because he needed room for one or two jokes he came up with and wanted to use them no matter what. One of those situations is at the very beginning of the movie, when the youngest mortician measures a dead man and mentions that the man now has an extra measure. He wants to see how "long" the man is ( instead of how tall ) in order to "produce" a fitting coffin. Bogdan Diklic is a great actor, but somehow i felt that this scene was so obviously set up like this just because the writer wanted to say that we shouldn't talk of dead people as being tall but as being "long". The ending is also a bit predictable. Diklic's rage piles up to that point and early on in the movie it becomes obvious that the only possible way for this movie to end is a carnage. Nevertheless, you should still be able to enjoy it since it is abundant in amazing jokes and interesting comedic situations. As far as I know, the script is based on a theater script written by the same author, and this is in fact pretty much evident during the movie, which is also a downside if you ask me. Still, it is an entertaining movie, but if you are really interested in Serbian or Balkan cinema at it's best you should check out some of Emir Kusturica's work.