plan9-10

Reading a review of this film on the BBC it was interesting to see that the movie's producers Arabella Croft and Kieran Parker risk £200,000 of their own cash on the film by re-mortgaging their home. In film terms this is a "low budget" film, shot mainly in Scotland. Outpost pretends to be set somewhere in Eastern Europe where a group of mercenaries are hired to escort a scientist to a remove military base. All that is known about the mission is that the scientist needs to find something. What is meant to be a 48 hour operation becomes an un-living nightmare. I found Outpost an intriguing film. The acting is good and more importantly the causation of the terrifying secret has a nice slant to it. There are some good gore scenes which see our mercenaries get a slow painful taste of 1940's science. Overall,an enjoyable film which is worth a view.

The film brings together three Yugoslavs who after the civil war arrive in Paris as a Montenegro Serb, Bosnia and Herzegovina Turk and a Croatian. War has apparently dissolved the unified title of Yugoslavian. However, ironically civil war has created a common bond regardless of religion, that is, their land, home and work have been destroyed. All they have is their labour to sell. The three Yugoslavs find themselves working in a cellar sowing fake labels onto jeans which conceal drugs.

Balkanska Brace's, I feel, focal point is the irony of war and an attempt to remind the viewer of the forgotten bond all Slavs had i.e. that they are Yugoslavs. These three workers begin to realise this as they spend their days imprisoned sowing labels in a cellar with no windows; their shoes and passport taken form theme.

I found the story very poignant and well acted. Whether you have Yugoslavian links or not I think you will find the film funny, sad and ironic.