The Last Supper or How Two Madmen Made a Film

I happened to see the San Jose Cinequest screening (2002) and loved it. It has a most unpromising premise: two escapees from a mental institution steal a camcorder to make a movie (the film you see is essentially the movie they made), and the early scenes make you wonder whether there's any hope at all for this pair of children-in-adult-bodies. But once they decide to help a suicidal prostitute, the movie takes a left turn into a deeper level of meaning and sensitivity that takes you unawares. It's not a film with universal appeal: it doesn't shy away from gritty realism, though the violent moments are implied rather than shown. But ultimately i thought it was entertaining and worthwhile. Now if you could only *find* it...

Two men escape from a mental institution with a camcorder, planning to make a film. One of them hardly says two words during the whole film, while the other gives an extended comedic performance (including a brief sequence of him bent over facing away from the camera, without pants, "speaking" through his, well, you get the idea). As the film progresses, it gradually moves into drama, with the addition of a suicidal prostitute and her abusive pimp.

While this film is not nearly as good as "Elling," which also features two mental patients attempting to make their way in the real world, it is recommended unless shaky hand-held camerawork makes you nauseous. This screening on 2/22/2002 at Cinequest (the San Jose, CA film festival) was the U.S. premiere.

OK, I'm bias, I have to admit. Being a patriot and the actor who plays the main character is from the same one-horse-town as I am (we lived just two blocks apart) and I do know the guy personally (got drunk with him on more then one occasion), I really can not be completely objective to this film.

It is still a good film. I have to say some things about the background of the movie. In Slovenia there are almost no independent films. There are only three or four films made every year (and that's if the year is good). They are usually funded by the state and very crappy. There have only been two watchable films in the last ten years.

This movie, however, is independent and was a huge success at home. Matjaz Javsnik (in the lead role) has already made a name for himself before. He is the person who brought the improvisational theater to Slovenia and had some other stage hits with which he toured all over the country.

So once he started making this movie, there was great interest in it. He was able to get enough money for it (in comparison to other Slovene films, this one wasn't really low budget - regardless of what you might think).

And the dark humor you see in this movie is actually a way of life around here. People are full of black humor and nothing is really sacred. Slovenians are unfortunately among the most suicidal nations in the world (we overtook the Japanese in these sad statistics somewhere in the early eighties).

So enjoy the movie, even though it starts of really idiotically, after about twenty minutes it starts developing and by the end of it, you'll get the feeling you have really seen something worth while.

I saw this movie over a year ago at the International Film Festival hosted by the University I was attending at the time. I went to see it alone because the people I was with were going to see something I had already seen. I was expecting nothing from the movie - either good or bad, but I left with a renewed respect for the art of cinema. The nature of the film is something that almost any movie goer can appreciate - one man looking to make his mark in the world, to understand what it means to be a hero. His personal journey to uncover this is perhaps unorthodox with regard to many of our own personal experiences, but the main character, Tincek will have you rooting for him because of the vulnerability and naivite of his character. It is dark humor in most places and yet it ends on something of a feel good note, though this response may differ for you. I have been searching for a place where I can purchase this VHS or DVD, but have as of yet been unsuccessful. If you get a chance to see it, I highly recommend the opportunity. Enjoy!