Sisterhood

I liked the movie as a whole and the story is a good one. Actors are great.

There are too many dark scenes and the speaking parts are way too quiet, I barely understood what the characters are saying.

There's a discrepancy in the scenography and the time we live in. It might be compelling visually but kids that go on swimming classes don't live in such homes. If say it is an exception, because yes some people live that way, the scenery is drastic. It feels like the story is set in 1994 just with smartphones and instagram.

The ending feels rushed and incomplete.

I was very happy to see a Macedonian movie on Netflix. I usually don't like watching Macedonian movies because they always seem to show some dark reality which is not really our reality. However, I decided to give this movie a chance because from the trailer it seemed interesting.

I liked the actors, I liked the camera work, maybe there were some long pauses and slow motion scenes that were unnecessary, but overall it was okay.

What I really hate about this movie is the representation of our life. I was studying in a public high school 10 years ago in Skopje - SUGS Orce Nikolov and my life had some similarities to Maja and Jana's. However everything that was represented along the way is nothing like what I've seen. I'll start with how the homes of the teenagers looked. The furniture is from the 60s, it looks like some ruins. There is some population in Skopje that lives like that, but that is very rarely. And in the movie all of the homes that were shown - the party and Jana's home especially look nothing like an average person's home in Skopje. Also, when I saw the cars, the school and the bus that were shown I thought that the plot was happening in the year 2000. Which was weird because they were using TikTok, so it was obviously 2021. I'm sure they must have especially looked for that bus from JSP for that scene, because in the last 10 years the buses don't look like that in Skopje.

I don't understand why Macedonian movies tend to represent the Macedonian society much worse then it is. Is it to get sympathy from other people who don't know us?

Also, I feel that the movie ended sudden and without an end. It would have been nice if we could have seen that there are consequences to Maja and Jana's actions or anything instead of finishing it in our heads. It seemed like there was no point...

This review is not to offend any of the crew that worked on the movie. I am very happy for their success and awards. However, this is so we can improve Macedonian movies and representation of Skopje in the future.

The plot was extremely bleak and, at times, non-sensical. The movie literally had no final premise or ending. The acting was ok, but some of the scenes felt extremely forced.

However, the thing that pisses me off the most is the utter misrepresentation of how people live in Skopje, and I honestly can't understand what's the point of all of that. Maybe the director's delusions seeped into the screenplay... Maybe its a desperate attempt to go fishing for foreign symphaty... or maybe she might've figured out the right formula to showcase a movie on Netflix... Who knows?

Also, the kids I see around town don't have pickup trucks; instead, they're driving their daddy's black BMW and curiously enough, speak a language that is not my own, but they weren't in the movie, were they?

First of all, I don't understand why they have to show Skopje as the capital of Macedonia in such a bad light. Maybe 2% of the city is like that.

Second of all somewhere at the middle of the movie I really thought maybe it could be worth the watch, but honestly this movie is trash.

Bad ending.

If I could give it a 0 I would, but unfortunately I can't, that's why I'm giving it a 1 star rating.

I just finished Sisterhood and it won me over. I was thrilled to see a modern and universal story about navigating teenage relationships, coming-of-age, and sexuality told so skillfully. So thank you to Duma for moving beyond the black comedy and yugonostalgia that have plagued Macedonian movies for a while. The directing and the aesthetics are great and the acting was on point!

My warm recommendation for this little gem of a drama!