Mudbrick

This film is so cryptic that it doesn't even tell you what country it's taking place in. It doesn't tell you anything, really. There's also a lot of whispering and mumbling so you won't understand what little is being said either. Something about pagan worship amidst traditionally Christian people, which makes as little sense as the conflict regarding ownership over a worthless house. There are no scares in this film, there is no suspense to speak of, and there is no payoff for enduring the minimalist and confusing plot. The characters are poorly developed and annoying, making any emotional involvement impossible. Random surreal waste of time.

And adding lots to it. I had the pleasure to see this film in a local theatre, with the director and some cast attending. Unfortunately, not many people sat there in the audience. I did end up liking it, the direction was pretty good, good cinematography, music and some of the cast, especially portrayal of the two brothers, were also good. This film is directed as a horror movie, and I enjoy a film, where every scene lets you know what genre you are watching. The first act is accompanied by such an eery score, that you feel uneasy watching it. It features some gory scenes I have never witnessed before. The folklore elements were unfamiliar to me, but I think the director created his own, in a way that works for the story. The plot twists did not disappoint. What I did not like was the editing, some scenes needed to be long, especially in the beginning, when we see the characters for the first time. Jump cuts sometimes confuse, when you have not spent long enough time with the characters. I hope this will be fixed in directors future projects I am looking forward to.

I really love movies i've seen this compared too such as wicked man or midsommar, but those made sense. They had pace, slow pace but methodical. This seems like there are hints at a message the whole movie, without any practical meaning. I understand you can be vague with folk lore, especially with modern morality involved, but the audience still needs to understand what's going on. Enjoyed some of the ideas, but just never came together in my opinion. Acting was not the problem, but some parts of the script was rather clunky. I wish i had better things to say about this movie because i like supporting movies like this, but it honestly fell flat on so many levels. Cheap visuals, cheaper blood stains. Decent acting, sub par dialogue. Incohesive story tale, incohesive script.

If there was a possibility to rate it with 0 stars, that would be the only realistic rating.

This film should be a horror film, with elements of Serbian, pre-Christian, pagan, mythology. At least that's how it's defined and advertised. None of these definitions have anything to do with reality. Some evaluate it as an artistic folk horror, like Midsommar, and I can agree with that only in terms of complete illogicality, senselessness and bizarreness, which it completely shares with the aforementioned film.

By far the best grade the film can get is from the technical side. Better sound than most "Serbian" films, solid scenography and landscapes. And that's where the story about the positive ends completely. Of course, that's not nearly enough for one star.

The acting in the film is, to put it mildly, disastrous. This is, of course, the greatest "merit" of the director, who is also the creator of the nonsensical scenario. There is almost no meaningful and logical sentence in the film. The dialogues are artificial and illogical to such an extent that the viewer, surely several dozen times during the film, gets the desire to stop watching, because of the itch in the brain caused by the absurdities. The domicile language, supposedly spoken by the characters, should be Serbian. We can barely recognize a dozen words from Serbian in the film, and that's only because the actors actually speak Macedonian, and maybe even Bulgarian. Actors from the English-speaking area could not make an effort to learn the few or so words they say in Serbian so that it can be recognized that they are spoken in Serbian. As someone whose mother tongue is Serbian, I watched the movie with subtitles because I couldn't understand what was being said.

The part about pagan mythology is a special story. In Serbia, at least in the last 100 years, there is not a single place, even in the most rural possible parts of the country, which have practically no contact with civilization, and which are really few, where such cults exist or existed. Therefore, for me, as someone who knows and studies Serbian pre-Christian mythology, this is "close" alost the same as the mythology of the natives of South America, Papua New Guinea or Mozambique. Apart from the terms Nav and Veles, everything else is complete nonsense and the "artistic freedom" of the screenwriter/director.

The attempt to present the story as an arche narrative of struggle and envy between brothers also failed completely. Of course, at a time when the quality of movies is declining exponentially, there will be many who will "swallow" that attempt. However, it must be said that the realization of that aspect of the story is at the level of an amateur theater from some rural village, as shown in the film.

Of course, this film will find its audience. Lovers of the absurd, enthusiasts who don't care about logic. Those who care about "artistic expression", not content. Those who will say that the picture, which has two crossed lines, represents a dilemma, not the lack of talent and creativity of the author. And that's okay. The rest of you, save yourself some time and skip this.

This slowburn dark folk (not really a) horror tale plays out in a small, derelict village in a pleasant but rather impoverished part of southeastern Serbia, in southeastern Europe. Through nice photography we are witnessing this family drama basically, encompassed by tacked-on pagan/Slavic symbolism and mythology, even some kind of a ''pagan'' cult (which doesn't make too much sense since the Orthodox Christianity in Serbia is already inherently merged with the old Serb/Slavic faith through Saint-Savaism).

Anyway, the decrepit village and eponymous mudbrick house look authentic here, since this ancient type of house-building (with mud as a binder) - can still be seen - or are refurbished for modern rural living, - in different parts of the country. What isn't too realistic though, is the family's grip on this grandfathers run-down old house in the countryside, and to see the brother (Paul) coming down from london like he inherited a castle, makes for a bit dubious premise, and the movie doesn't really offer a secret reason why the house is so much important to them. The other brother (Jakov) is played averagely by Andrew Howard (from a nice little film Mr InBetween, and here he looks and speaks like Niko Belic for some reason, which is fine by me). The rest of the cast, whom I've only seen for the first time here, are equally average.

Film's early promising, but ultimately unfulfilled vague 70's folk horror-reminiscent/pagan aesthetic doesn't offer much, and it barely, let alone deeply, touches upon it and nothing seems really dangerous nor frightening, which is the biggest deficiency here. One wonders if the creators actually even wanted this to be marketed and even made, as a truly 'horror' film, or merely a tribute to the older homegrown folk stories.

It did look nice though, didn't drag too long and I certainly appreciated the effort.

5.8/10.