One has come to expect it, but "The Powder Keg" is another harsh, disturbing descent into the chaos of the former Yugoslavia, where the population in general and most individuals are primed to explode into hatred and hostility.
A Paramount Classics release and winner at the 1998 European Film Awards, "Powder" has been on the festival circuit since its premiere last year at Venice (where it won the international critics prize), with a recent unspooling at the Freedom Film Festival in Santa Monica. It's screening in competition today at Santa Barbara and is scheduled to open commercially this year.
Set in 1995 in Belgrade during a one night, "Powder" (subtitled in English) is blackly humorous and heavy on violence, based on a play by Macedonian playwright Dejan Dukovski, who co-wrote the screenplay with Serbian director Goran Paskaljevic ("Someone Else's America").
Somewhat reminiscent of John Sayles' "City of Hope" and modeled after "La Ronde" with a great ensemble cast playing loosely connected characters, the film has a sobering agenda that will leave few viewers unfazed and definitely won't help the local tourist industry.
Michael (Miki Manojlovic) is a hopeless romantic who's been out of the country and returns to find his best friend in a hospital, his legs blown off in the fighting. Saddened but fatalistic about the madness he encounters in his further wanderings, Michael's is at first the most hopeful story, including a welcome moment of Fellini-esque whimsy when he spends a small fortune to impress the woman he deserted (Mirjana Karanovic), but then his fate too is unexpectedly grim.
Indeed, from a car crash that starts a bloody chain of events to an attempted rape on a train that results in two people blown to bits by a hand grenade to a horrible hostage scene on a bus -- which one woman (Mirjana Jokovic) survives only to be terrorized later with her boyfriend by gangsters -- there's not much relief from Paskaljevic and Dukovski's bleak view of humanity.
THE POWDER KEG (BURE BARUTA)
Paramount Classics
MACT, Ticket Prods., Stefi S.A. Gradski Kina,
Mine Film, Vans
Director: Goran Paskaljevic
Producers: Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre, Goran Paskaljevic
Screenwriters: Dejan Dukovski, Goran Paskaljevic, Filip David, Zoran Andric
Director of photography: Milan Spasic
Production designer: Milenko Jeremic
Editor: Petar Putnikovic
Costume designers: Zora Mojsilovic Popovic, Suna Ciftci
Music: Zoran Simjanovic
Color/stereo
Cast:
Michael: Miki Manojlovic
Natalia: Mirjana Karanovic
The Boxer: Lazar Ristovski
Ana: Mirjana Jokovic
The Young Man: Sergej Trifunovic
Boris: Nikolva Ristanovski
Kosta: Dragan Jovanovic
Running time -- 102 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
A Paramount Classics release and winner at the 1998 European Film Awards, "Powder" has been on the festival circuit since its premiere last year at Venice (where it won the international critics prize), with a recent unspooling at the Freedom Film Festival in Santa Monica. It's screening in competition today at Santa Barbara and is scheduled to open commercially this year.
Set in 1995 in Belgrade during a one night, "Powder" (subtitled in English) is blackly humorous and heavy on violence, based on a play by Macedonian playwright Dejan Dukovski, who co-wrote the screenplay with Serbian director Goran Paskaljevic ("Someone Else's America").
Somewhat reminiscent of John Sayles' "City of Hope" and modeled after "La Ronde" with a great ensemble cast playing loosely connected characters, the film has a sobering agenda that will leave few viewers unfazed and definitely won't help the local tourist industry.
Michael (Miki Manojlovic) is a hopeless romantic who's been out of the country and returns to find his best friend in a hospital, his legs blown off in the fighting. Saddened but fatalistic about the madness he encounters in his further wanderings, Michael's is at first the most hopeful story, including a welcome moment of Fellini-esque whimsy when he spends a small fortune to impress the woman he deserted (Mirjana Karanovic), but then his fate too is unexpectedly grim.
Indeed, from a car crash that starts a bloody chain of events to an attempted rape on a train that results in two people blown to bits by a hand grenade to a horrible hostage scene on a bus -- which one woman (Mirjana Jokovic) survives only to be terrorized later with her boyfriend by gangsters -- there's not much relief from Paskaljevic and Dukovski's bleak view of humanity.
THE POWDER KEG (BURE BARUTA)
Paramount Classics
MACT, Ticket Prods., Stefi S.A. Gradski Kina,
Mine Film, Vans
Director: Goran Paskaljevic
Producers: Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre, Goran Paskaljevic
Screenwriters: Dejan Dukovski, Goran Paskaljevic, Filip David, Zoran Andric
Director of photography: Milan Spasic
Production designer: Milenko Jeremic
Editor: Petar Putnikovic
Costume designers: Zora Mojsilovic Popovic, Suna Ciftci
Music: Zoran Simjanovic
Color/stereo
Cast:
Michael: Miki Manojlovic
Natalia: Mirjana Karanovic
The Boxer: Lazar Ristovski
Ana: Mirjana Jokovic
The Young Man: Sergej Trifunovic
Boris: Nikolva Ristanovski
Kosta: Dragan Jovanovic
Running time -- 102 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
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