tomislavstojanovic-963-595058

This is such a simple, beautiful story done on a low budget, yet it's one of the nicest love/friendship stories I have ever seen. So much better than anything coming out of Hollywood these days. The amount of beauty, great feelings, friendship, love, esprit de corps and many other irresistible things draw me back to it. I don't think I will ever get bored watching this movie. My friends from HBO took me to see it once at a festival in LA. They produced some of the most famous and very profitable TV series out there. I walked out of the theater thinking how this little movie, done with such a great sensibility is better anything my HBO friends have ever done. It reminds me of Serbia where I come from and it makes me feel that the USA and England where I spent half of my life are basically a zombie-land where love (or even friendship) is hard to come by. All we have here is more or less psychopathic obsession with money and power games. This beautiful little story reminds me that there are much better places and better social environments to spend one's life in. Even watching a little bit of this movie makes me happy.

This film connects (and explains) so many relevant but seldom properly discussed problems. It links many seemingly unrelated things into a powerful metaphor. It reveals something interesting, powerful, and destructive. In that sense (that all is not as it seems) it reminds me of Cervantes and Don Quixote (whose disconnect from reality I always thought was a metaphor for religion and bible stories.) Here we have a few destructive(even psychopathic) parallels - from many forms of sexual abuse (child abuse, incest, and general inability to connect emotionally and sexually - and why) to what i think is metaphor for a life cycle of a not-so -powerful empire. The un-motherly mother could be viewed as a metaphor for a country/empire/Western 'values'. The location is also well picked to provide a good context for all these issues. As in life (and wars) - fighting is not just violence, it's also a form of self-punishment, a failed attempt to heal psychological wounds and a few other things. This story links all these threads (and more) into a powerful explanation and a lesson to be learned.It's like a military/fighting version of Volver but at the same time very different. Very interesting.

I've hared about this movie from a few friends who seemed a bit shocked about a couple of scenes it contains. They made me almost not want to see it. Then one night a friend who works for HBO had a free copy and there was nothing else to do so I saw it. I am so glad I did! Psychologically, this is a very interesting story. I thought acting was great and I found it quite funny. It tackles aspects of life that are rarely approached this masterfully and with such brilliant yet subtle insights. I felt I was listening to a very interesting story told by a wise good friend who had a great sense of humor. It amused me and I've learned a lot. Brilliant.