Thessaloniki Dispatch. 7.

Once again, Russia proves that it is on a roll, with Guka Omarova's Schizo (2004) proving to be another compelling feature from the country on the rebound. Based around bare-knuckle fist fights in Kazakhstan, the film manages to find lyricism in even the darkest social conditions and evolves into a tender love story. Superb cinematography backs up the finely crafted tale.

Srdjan Vuletic's Summer in the Golden Valley (Bosnia/France/UK, 2003) in the Balkan Survey is similarly accomplished in capturing tender emotions in a ruined landscape, this time war-scarred Sarajevo.

Although perhaps a bit more narratively untidy than Schizo, Vuletic's story of a kidnapping that doesn't quite go according to plan is rather more innovative in expressing the mixture of desolation and hope that exists in contemporary Bosnia. It also had the Thessaloniki audience rolling in the aisles, proving once again - after films such as Emir Kusturica's When Father Was Away on Business and Danis Tanovic's No Man's Land - that Bosnia's wry sense of humor is eminently exportable.

Which was all a stark contrast to Svetozar Ristovski's Mirage (2004), another picture from the Balkan Survey, which seemed to have no hope in humanity at all. Clearly allegorical (and partly autobiographical), the film depicts violence winning out over intellectualism as a young poet finds he can better express himself with a gun. With no redeeming humor, the film is deeply pessimistic and I struggled to imagine why anyone would want to make a feature with so little faith in human nature.

Andrew's final wrap-up will appear in a few days, once he returns to the States.

Posted by dwhudson at November 27, 2004 4:28 AM