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Ljeto u zlatnoj dolini (2003)
A huge setback after "No Man's Land"
**** SPOILERS ALERT!!! ****
Exactly at a point where one can find some hope for post-war Bosnian cinematography, "Ljeto u zlatnoj dolini" happens.
This movie has no boundaries, it is packed with unnecessary and unwanted amount of curses and bad language (coming from mouths of 16-year-olds, and trust me, South Park is nothing compared to this), and generally lack of any taste (and art) is written all over.
Although the confusing story can be bought (somehow), the characters are miserable. We have a kid on the street, and in normal life those kids have vocabulary of 50 words max, who in one sentence raps that he is going to f*ck everything and everybody, and in the next one finds himself in deep philosophic thinking...
Even though there are still illegal weapons in Sarajevo, to think that, again a 16 yo kid, can take a machine gun and shoot a couple of rounds all over some grocery shop in the middle of the city it is totally ridiculous (by the way, where did he have it before that scene, in his jacket???). It is simply not realistic.
However, the worst things of all are how VuletiÄ? describes Bosnian police, and the scene where Bosnian flag is replaced with pants. If the director intended to express his protest on current situation in his country: it was a very bad one, and personally, as a citizen of B&H - I am offended by such disrespect of Bosnian flag.
"Ljeto u zlatnoj dolini" is not Bosnia, this is not Sarajevo, and these are not Sarajevans, it has too much Hollywood in it, and that just spoils everything.
With all respect to SrÄ'an VuletiÄ?, I believe this movie is a major setback after Oscar-awarded "No Man's Land", and we can do much, much better.
Welcome to Sarajevo (1997)
nice, but too confused and missing the point
At the beginning I should mention that I live in Sarajevo, and I was a civilian in a besieged city, so that explains my perspective from which I was watching this movie, and experience I carry from it.
Through the whole movie, one thing kept torturing me: What is this movie about??? Is it about Michael Henderson and his moral issues, is it about all journalists and their moral issues, is it about Flynn and his understanding of war, is it about worlds' understanding of that war, is it about Sarajevo, about Emira, about orphans? This movie needs focusing on one goal, because this way I'm left with 100 stories that don't actually fit together and I don't know what I was watching the past 1,5 hours. Pictures of war make their message very clear, but then its messed up with the story that tries to cover too many things at the same time. So is it fiction? Well, no. Is it a documentary? Well, no, not that either...
Most places shown in the move are totally wrong. Characters keep jumping from one end of the city to another in matters of seconds, some events that really happened are shown in wrong places, many times characters enter streets that in real life were sniper alleys etc. (meaning no way one could get near and stay alive), military checkpoints are mostly in the wrong places and so on, but one can forgive details like that.
Welcome to Sarajevo is trying to show you how it was, living in Sarajevo under siege, but its constantly missing the point and showing the wrong things. If you want to know how it looked like, watch a documentary.
To date the only realistic movie about Bosnian war is No Man's Land, and that would be my highest recommendation. Other than that, Lepa sela lepo gore is worth watching.