I watched this movie as a teenager, and my only memories were the beginning, the end and Steve Zigon wearing a suit and walked down the stairs. Boring beginning, shocking end and I kind of felt Zigon's performance a little bit too affectatious. Now decades later having experience life, I can now appreciate the movie more and understand it better and can say it is a much better movie than I have been thinking about it all along. It is a story about the WWII history in a beautiful Croatian city, about the fight against fascism, inhuman cruelty, sacrifice, vendetta and revenge. It's a lot more enjoyable than my teenage mind could have digested.
4 Reviews
Most disturbing Yugoslavian movie
cenga5014 February 2002
Warning: Spoilers
This is a story about three friends from same town - Dubrovnik, a beautiful old town situated on Adriatic coast ( Croatia,then Yugoslavia ) - but from a different nations:Niko (Croat),Toni(Italian)and Miho (Jew).But that fact is not make difference for them-they are best friends.Until... In spring of 1941.,Yugoslavia was occupated by German and Italian armed forces.Dubrovnik became part of so called "Nezavisna Drava Hrvatska" or NDH ("Independent state of Croatia"),founded by members of "Ustasha" movement (Croatian fascists)with permission of occupators,of course.Such a pro-Nazi country wasn't a place for any other people but Croats. Serbs and Jews must been terminated... Three friends take three different sides:Toni became an Italian fascist,Niko became a member of Resistance movement ( or partisans),so as Miho (after surviving a bus massacre).
POSSIBLE SPOILER: A film contents shocking scenes of bus massacre that marks this movie as most disturbing picture ever filmed in Yugoslavia.In that scene,a group of imprisoned Jews (including Miho and his father),Serbs and communists was put into the bus.In the bus,a group of "Ustasha"'s killed one by one prisoner (all civilians)by most horrific methods,such as: a ortodox priest's tongue was cut out, so as one woman's nipple; few people were killed by sledgehammer; Miho's father was decapitated...And that's not just in film-"Ustasha"'s perpetrated a horrible massacres and killed thousands of innocent people during WW2.This film shows "ustasha"'s in only possible way-as a savage beasts.That's reason why this movie and director Lordan Zafranovic were on blacklist in Croatia,during reign of pro-"Ustasha" nationalist's dictature in that country (1990.-2000.). This movie shows one of the darkest chapters in history of Balcan,and this is the one of the best Yugoslavian movies of all time.
POSSIBLE SPOILER: A film contents shocking scenes of bus massacre that marks this movie as most disturbing picture ever filmed in Yugoslavia.In that scene,a group of imprisoned Jews (including Miho and his father),Serbs and communists was put into the bus.In the bus,a group of "Ustasha"'s killed one by one prisoner (all civilians)by most horrific methods,such as: a ortodox priest's tongue was cut out, so as one woman's nipple; few people were killed by sledgehammer; Miho's father was decapitated...And that's not just in film-"Ustasha"'s perpetrated a horrible massacres and killed thousands of innocent people during WW2.This film shows "ustasha"'s in only possible way-as a savage beasts.That's reason why this movie and director Lordan Zafranovic were on blacklist in Croatia,during reign of pro-"Ustasha" nationalist's dictature in that country (1990.-2000.). This movie shows one of the darkest chapters in history of Balcan,and this is the one of the best Yugoslavian movies of all time.
A great work of Lordan Zafranovic!
nixona27 November 2001
The plot is situated in Dubrovnik and I get the impression that Zafranovic wanted to show how nice, beautiful and nonchalant life was before the war by making it to look like it is in renaissance. Three friends (a Croat, an Italian and a Jew) are having the time of their lives, singing, laughing, and having fun and girls. Then the war breaks and their friendship is eclipsed by their nationalities and religions. Instead of songs and laugh there are scenes of violence and killings. And the way in which Zafranovic has shown all that hatred between Croats and Serbs, Nazis and Jews is superb and frightening at the same time. I must mention one more scene that amazed me. It is the scene of striptease in the whorehouse. Maybe that's because of Tanja Boskovic, who is, in my humble opinion, the sexiest Serbian actress ever, but the camera work with cruising along the room and shooting it all at once with sliding back and out of the room with Tanja naked and the statue in front in the same pose is magnificent.
Difficult to watch, because the reality was difficult to live
unlearningcommunism8 July 2021
Lordan Zafranovic is one of the best movie directors who ever lived and I hope he will make his masterpiece, a movie about Jasenovac.
It's a very difficult movie to watch, but it's 100% true. All that you will see have happened once ideologies based on collectivism have infected the brains of people and turned them into beasts.
It's not for underaged, not for families, but if you want to learn what the Evil is - watch it, alone. And don't you dare to move your eyes from the screen, have the respect for what happened in WWII.
Schindler's list is ultra soft in comparison to this.
Watch! Because if you allow collectivism to take your society - it will be your autobiography.
It's a very difficult movie to watch, but it's 100% true. All that you will see have happened once ideologies based on collectivism have infected the brains of people and turned them into beasts.
It's not for underaged, not for families, but if you want to learn what the Evil is - watch it, alone. And don't you dare to move your eyes from the screen, have the respect for what happened in WWII.
Schindler's list is ultra soft in comparison to this.
Watch! Because if you allow collectivism to take your society - it will be your autobiography.
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