by Vladan Petkovic
[Screen International Belgrade correspondent, here writing exclusively for Jigsaw Lounge]

Report #2.5: Pula and beyond



THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
[6/10] : Zivi i mrtvi : Croatia/Bosnia-Herzegovina 2007 : Kristijan Milic : 87m
Seen at Pula Film Festival, July 20

One of apparently incurable diseases of post-war former Yugoslav film is exactly that there is still a huge number of films about that war itself. What is different about Kristijan Milic's The Living And The Dead, big winner at the Croatian national festival in Pula (eight out of 14 awards, including best film, best director, music, editing, visual effects and camera) is that it is made out of two parallel stories: one happening in 1943 and another in 1993, both in the same place in Bosnia. The main premise is the one often successfully used in both literature and film, and that is "history repeating". 

In 1943, a group of ustashas (Croatian fascist military formation that established the Independent State of Croatia in 1941 in collaboration with Hitler) conquer a strategically important point in western Bosnia, capturing a group of Muslims. The sadistic commander Dane Boro (excellent Robert Loklicer) keeps them as hostages until the next group arrives to replace them. The main character Martin (the ever-convincing Filip Sovagovic) kills a Muslim and steals his watch, which will be the element which connects to the story to the 1993 section.

Martin's grandson Tomo (also Sovagovic) is one of the six soldiers of Croatian army who, in attempt to join the rest of the forces, come to the same place in Bosnia. They encounter a group of Bosnian soldiers and after an effective battle scene, capture those they haven't killed. However, in order to leave the place they have to kill the rest - and that is when the problems start. Tomo befriends a Muslim (in an example of the familiar captor/hostage syndrome) who discovers his grandfather's watch among Tomo's things - thus realising who was responsible for his grandfather's death. Their relationship is supposed to be one of the vehicles for the anti-war message of the film, but there are serious holes in the script, written by Josip Mlakic (upon whose novel the film is based) and the direction cannot do justice to the intended complexity of the story.

Indeed, although the film is fast-paced, beautifully shot on HD (with use of strong sepia for the sequences from 1943, and in the 1993 sequences reminiscent of camera-work in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later), one manages to lose attention even during the fight scenes. The ending is surrealistic and uneven, when surviving soldiers in 1993 meet the dead ones from 1943 at a graveyard. Supposedly, the point is that in war there are no heroes, only the survivors and the killed.

Andrija Milic's music is excellent, using the kind of Wagner orchestration reminiscing of Apocalypse Now, though the editing is problematic, showing that the director instructed the editor Goran Guberovic (who died before completion of the film) to shorten some shots to achieve faster pacing - and in several cases these cuts seem severely mutilating. The cast is well-chosen, particularly Velibor Topic who plays Vijali, an experienced, cold-blooded warrior who talks little and takes care of the whole group. In all, a cruel war drama with a lot of blood and certain elements of horror - in some aspects reminding of Michael J. Basset's Deathwatch - which are not used to their full potential as the living are chased through a forest by the unspecified dead. In the end, it left this spectator somewhat unsatisfied, as the scale of production and ambitious subject matter are not equally met by what actually makes a good film: the handling of the story.

Production: Mainframe Production, Croatian National Television, Bosnian Federal Television
Producers: Igor A. Nola, Domagoj Pavic, Marijo Vukadin, Miro Barnjak
Director: Kristijan Milic
Screenplay: Josip Mlakic
Cast: Filip Sovagovic, Velibor Topic, Slaven Knezovic, Marinko Prga, Borko Peric, Miro Barnjak, Bozidar Oreskovic, Enes Vejzovic, Izudin Bajrovic, Ljubomir Jurkovic, Robert Roklicer, Zvonko Zecevic, Dragan Suvak, Nino Soric, Nermin Omic
Cinematography: Dragan Markovic
Editing: Goran Guberovic
Production design: Kemal Hrustanovic
Costume design: Vedrana Rapic
Music: Andrija Milic
Sound: Davor Omerza
Make up: Snjezana Gorup, Ana Bulajic-Crcek
Special effects: Branko Repalust