I first saw this about a year ago and must have watched it four or five times since. I was mainly captured by the delicately nuanced characterisation. Like all great dramas there are no good guys and bad guys, white hats and black hats. Frane, the black sheep of the family, drug dealer and petty criminal but who loves his wife and especially his daughter. The 'good son' Josip, reliable, dependable, generous, brave in battle, but lonely and who secretly covets his brother's wife, betrays his brother to the police in the hope of winning her.
The dialogue is as spare as the barren landscape where the action takes place. The music is haunting, and despite this being a police drama, there is little 'action' in the usual sense - although there is a lot of drama. Ultimately, this is about the multitude of needs and emotions bubbling away in all of us, how they come to the surface, how we deal with them and how they affect those around us. But there is no moralising or intrusion. The direction is light, almost as if we are a fly on the wall, watching real events take their course. A beautiful piece of work.
The dialogue is as spare as the barren landscape where the action takes place. The music is haunting, and despite this being a police drama, there is little 'action' in the usual sense - although there is a lot of drama. Ultimately, this is about the multitude of needs and emotions bubbling away in all of us, how they come to the surface, how we deal with them and how they affect those around us. But there is no moralising or intrusion. The direction is light, almost as if we are a fly on the wall, watching real events take their course. A beautiful piece of work.
