Son's Will

Like sword ... like the same? Well no pun intended, though that is more for my summary headline. This is a postapocalyptic movie - from Serbia! It is quite violent, but nothing can shock anyone who may have seen a different kind of movie from Serbia (from 2010 that is).

There is also one actor who played in that movie and is back again for this one. He played a terrific villain back then - and he still got it. This builds quite the fantasy and mythology around itself and a certain sword. Mixing eastern tradition with western authoritarian and societal structures. Well you could do worse than watching this - especially considering how good it looks (and I don't necessarily refer to the actors, though they are a fine bunch of people too).

If you're thinking of watching this movie, it's a world you've already seen somewhere before, Into the Badlands (TV series), Mad Max 2 (1981), The 100 (TV series)... Old folk tales from Serbia, introduced into the post-apocalyptic future, give a special experience.

The scenery and costumes are irresistibly reminiscent of the aforementioned series, so the viewer will get the hang of it very quickly, but the problem remains the misunderstanding of the narrator with the instrument, which is characteristic of Serbian folk songs from the 16th and 18th centuries, so if you are not close to Serbian culture, this would be an obstacle in understanding the plot of the film.

In general, it is a big step forward in the Serbian film industry. It can always be better and there will always be critics with bad reviews. Considering that this is the first film made with this kind of theme in Serbia, we have to be more tolerant.

A post-apocalyptic epic coming to the world from Serbia no less! A lot of motifs from the old Serbian heroic poetry, re-imagined in a new world that came out of nuclear war.

The main problem with the movie is that it isn't a movie at all. In Serbian cinematography they have this practice of creating a mini-series and also cutting it down into a movie for release in the cinemas. The Son's Will series is 8 episodes, 40 minutes long each. They had to cut it into 150 minutes movie that now simultaneously feels both too long and too short, as too much is crammed in with not enough exposure to explain all.

The scenes are very competently made and acted. A big issue is that the movie is very Americanized, not in the spirit of Serbian cinematography, so some dialogs and actions feel very cringey for domestic viewers, while I don't know how much it will appeal to international audience that has no idea what "gusle" is.

Honestly, this is the most original premise which I have seen in quite a few years. It combines cultural ethnic legacy through the musical instrument "gusle " (single string fiddle) and "guslar "- gusle's player, with the utopian environment of mad max 2, but rather than having Mad max atmosphere, rhis movie (series, actually) more leaning towards Badlands direction.

Why I said "series actually"? Because movie is unfortunately made as a promo for the series and movie itself looks messy when it comes to the story narrative a lot of things are not explained by the end of the movie.

While series, in the other hand, is nailing it!!!! Narrative is strong, acting is good, story is unfolding the way it should.

The only thing I didn't like is clearly low budget. As I already said, this story has potential to be recognized as one of the best in utopian sci fi genre ever, and execution is quite good, but the small budget made it not to shine to its full potential

Therefore, in giving 10/10 for the series, because budget shouldn't be taken into consideration when talking about masterpieces, especially when talking about the first movie ever if this genre, probably in 500 miles perimeter.

Movie...6/10.

Since it is the first serbian movie of thing, I can give it three stars,otherwise,it hardly deserves one. The actors are average,the scenes and atmosphere are good,aometimes excelent,but the plot is so boring and fails to deliver at the end. Believe me,you will forget what the movie was about in two weeks,that is how faint impression it leaves. And when I think that I wanted to go to the cinema to watch it,what a waste of time it would have been!