Balkans is a region of Europe that is most often subject of prejudice and has a series of negative stereotypes attached to it. It is not unusual to see a Western film depicting the "wild East" as a dangerous place, full of thugs and violence, but seeing this comes from someone who was actually born down there makes it strange.
Yes, the director obviously wanted to make it a stylization, what with all the instagram-like colors and framing, but it still is very much referring to an existing place (Bosnia) and the main character shares some biography with the director.
She is a Bosnian girl who grew up in the Netherlands and feels more Dutch than Bosnian. As her father lies on the deathbed she goes back to her "homeland", realizing she doesn't really belong there. She embarks on a road trip which leads us through a series of caricatures of Bosnian culture, mentality, economy etc. Everything is there: local peddlers trying to get into the panties of Western European tourists, local politicians trying to get into the panties of young girls by getting them drunk, ex-prostitute turbo folk singers butchering the cultural legacy of Yugoslavia, cheap cars, drugs, violence, late trains and rude ticket vendors...
Except for the motherly attitude the prostitute-singer adopts towards her, more or less everyone is treating her real bad throughout the film. It makes me wonder is this really the experience Ena had back in her home country?
Towards the end of the film they take empty chairs on a beach out-of-season and some guys appear to beat them up just because they used their chairs. It's so contrived and over-the-top, while also inaccurate, as the actors she used are for some strange reason Serbs. So you have Serbs beating up Bosnians on the Croatian/Bosnian seaside? Unless this is some kind of political statement...
Speaking of political, there's tons of keywords that can make this film extremely easy to finance and pitch, so it doesn't surprise me it's been here and there. You just say that it's a film about how a young immigrant girl faces the brutality of the male-dominated world of what used to be her homeland and you've got it going. The fact that it is all done in a very superficial and blunt way makes no difference.
The acting was okay, which is the only part that keeps this film together (unless you're a fan of contrived shots composed in a way that seems to have come out of a hipster commercial photo shoot).
Yes, the director obviously wanted to make it a stylization, what with all the instagram-like colors and framing, but it still is very much referring to an existing place (Bosnia) and the main character shares some biography with the director.
She is a Bosnian girl who grew up in the Netherlands and feels more Dutch than Bosnian. As her father lies on the deathbed she goes back to her "homeland", realizing she doesn't really belong there. She embarks on a road trip which leads us through a series of caricatures of Bosnian culture, mentality, economy etc. Everything is there: local peddlers trying to get into the panties of Western European tourists, local politicians trying to get into the panties of young girls by getting them drunk, ex-prostitute turbo folk singers butchering the cultural legacy of Yugoslavia, cheap cars, drugs, violence, late trains and rude ticket vendors...
Except for the motherly attitude the prostitute-singer adopts towards her, more or less everyone is treating her real bad throughout the film. It makes me wonder is this really the experience Ena had back in her home country?
Towards the end of the film they take empty chairs on a beach out-of-season and some guys appear to beat them up just because they used their chairs. It's so contrived and over-the-top, while also inaccurate, as the actors she used are for some strange reason Serbs. So you have Serbs beating up Bosnians on the Croatian/Bosnian seaside? Unless this is some kind of political statement...
Speaking of political, there's tons of keywords that can make this film extremely easy to finance and pitch, so it doesn't surprise me it's been here and there. You just say that it's a film about how a young immigrant girl faces the brutality of the male-dominated world of what used to be her homeland and you've got it going. The fact that it is all done in a very superficial and blunt way makes no difference.
The acting was okay, which is the only part that keeps this film together (unless you're a fan of contrived shots composed in a way that seems to have come out of a hipster commercial photo shoot).