User Reviews

Film adaptation of a great Dusan Kovacevic's novel - equally good. Recognizable a la Kovacevic humor, full of absurdness, self-irony, sharp and spiritual. Great critic of a dead ideology and authoritarian character translated into a black-humor paranoia of a small man - ideology slave. Brilliant, unforgettable Bata Stojkovic's acting gave this feature strength and rare authentic movie-expression.

Balkanski spijun (Balkan Spy) is one Ingenious Comedy, from ingenious writer/director with ingenious actors. State of art, as it was expected from such genius as Dusan Kovacevic is. A-must-see comedy, always actual, without time or space limitations.

I will never get bored of it, no matter how many times I see it. Practically, the dialogs from the whole movie are anthological. Only a thought at them brings the smile to my face.

This is in deed not only one of Dusan's masterpieces, but one of the greatest actings I have ever seen. It is based on a play of the same director. As slightly involved in the movie world, I can hardly remember any actor that could perform what Bata Stojkovic did in this film. Perfect drama composition, casting and acting. However, you gotta possess more than narrowed global news awareness film attitude to enjoy humor of a director who is laughing at himself in the movie that depicts self-criticizing of whole nation through the ideologically fallen character of an actor that no Hollywood performer can follow in even much shorter monologue

As one of the most significant films in the Serbian and Yugoslavian cinematography ever, "Balkanski spijun" is most often regarded as a comedy, which it is only to a certain extent.

The film works on many different levels and it's virtually impossible to judge it after seeing it only once. Serving primarily as a social commentary and a metaphor for a national paranoia towards anything foreign, the film uses its main character Ilija Cvorovic as a vehicle to carry out both humorous and serious situations towards a bitter and somewhat prophetic ending. The great Bata Stojkovic (in one of his best roles here) has masterfully crafted a portrait of a man whose delusions progressively lead him from a state of comical confusion to a tragic crescendo of violence laden with conspiracy theories.

"Balkanski spijun" is a comedy that will make you think before you laugh and a tragedy that will make you laugh before you think.

This Dusan Kovacevic' drama talks about political paranoia of Ilija Cvorovic, ex-Stallinist, the man who spent two years in prison because of his activity. He follows and haunts a tenant in his house - who returned from France. Ilija sees in him agent of imperialist powers, enemy of the state and a foreign spy. The movie is true piece-of-art of Yugoslav cinematography of the 80's. Also talks about relations of hard-line communists and capitalists in liberal-socialist Yugoslavia.

A lot of lame movies these days are going to international film festivals,we all are asking ourselves what happened to Serbian movie,and this film is reminder that we once had a good directors and for NO.! good screenplays! Movie is intelligent and funny ,like Dusan Kovacevic's work always is. He mocks the regime and at the same time works with really serious subjects and ask serious questions .. I would recommend this movie to anyone . Ilija Cvorovic is a man in his middle age.One day he gets a phone call from the police.He is called to be examined about his neighbor and subtenant . He is afraid of what will the police ask him.But they don't ask him much,they just want to know who is he ,because he just came from France. After that conversation Ilija begin to imagine things ,he thinks that his subtenant is a spy and that kind of thinking led to lot of funny scenes...

The movie Balkan Spy (Balkanski spijun) was released in 1984. and to me it is the best movie wrote by Dusan Kovacevic, and the competition is great ("Ko to tamo peva", "Maratonci trce pocasni krug", "Sabirni Centar" are a few of his other films). I will not go so far in saying that this is the best comedy of all time but certainly it is the best tragicomedy full of black-humor. One of the main characters Jakovljevic (Bora Todorovic) moves into the house of Ilija (Bata Stojkovic) after a long time working in France. Ilija gets a call from the police and has a talk with a inspector about Jakovljevic. From that moment Ilija is convinced that Jakovljevic is a spy working for "them". The cast is made from some of the best Serbian actors of all time: Danilo 'Bata' Stojkovic, Bora Todorovic, Mira Banjac, Sonja Savic, Bata Zivojinovic, Mica Tomic and Croatian legend Zvonko Lepetic as Djuro Cvorovic. It has awesome dialogue, great characters, and the cast is superb.

10/10

Just legendary. You gotta watch it!

In the beginning, I was slightly bored, but in the second half, this movie becomes madhouse you'll never forget. As for the audio-visual experience, it is quite irrelevant whether you watch this movie in the theater or on a mobile phone, but the screenplay and dialogues made history. The acting and anthological monologues of ingenious Danilo Bata Stojkovic are magnificent and, although he has accomplished many good roles, most of us will always remember him for this one.

8,5/10

One of the most popular ex. Yugoslavian movies in the Croatia. Exellent description of our past political system in a very funny way. Greeting to all admirers of this movie.

This is a movie I sought out because of it's ridiculously high ranking on IMDb's comedy genre list. It was definitely a watchable movie, but I found it to be a bit too much of a jumble of political/social commentary, slapstick, absurdity, and violence. The last half hour was especially cringe-worthy, as the main character descends into despair, sadism and ultra-violence. Watching these latter scenes, I found myself thinking about how a Serbian audience in 1984 would have received them. Would they be cringing, too, or would they be laughing? Given the history of the region in the 90's, I'm afraid of the answer.

But, it's always nice to see a film from within the communist era that reflects upon the communist apparatus and how it affects daily life, especially in such a candid manner. This film must have really irked some of the people in charge! For searing political commentary that is rolling-on-the-floor hilarious, I highly recommend Milos Forman's The Firemen's Ball.

Amazing comedy, describes different types of people. Funny and sad at the same time. Masterpiece.

Balkan spy is about an ordinary man from Belgrade who has to keep a tenant in order to pay his debts in time. The main protagonist became suspicous of the newcommer form the capitalist West. His paranoia and suspicions gives rise to absurd situations and funny circumstances. It's a very good comedy and one of those movies that I never get tired of no matter how many times I see it.

The movie is not funny at all (might have been at its release time for the local audiences) and definitely not a comedy. At most is an ironic story.

After a while it gets really boring and doesn't even have other qualities such as beautiful photography, clever sequences, etc.

The movie is a criticism of the big brother surveillance paranoia that victimised the socialist countries and the absurdity of a repressive system. As such it has its value but nowadays it is anachronistic and out of context. It might still have some meaning for Serbian people who suffered with stalinism or might still have shadows of stalinism in their everyday lives today, but this is my guess based on the other reviews.

The other movie, KO TO TAMO PEVA of the same director is a different story. Its message is universal and timeless.

This movie depicts the actions of a man affected by paranoid personality disorder. From the "psychological" point, the movie is excellent! I wouldn't be surprised if Dusan Kovacevic consulted some psychiatrist while writing the screenplay for this movie. However, I must point out one thing - do not fall in to the "ideological" trap of this movie! This particular disorder has nothing to do with the ideology! I can give you an example - My father suffers from the same personality disorder - his actions are quite the same as Ilija Cvorovic's - and he's not a communist at all! The only difference is, he's not after "subtenant - imperialist spy" - he's after his "wife's lover"! But his behavior is quite the same as Cvorovic's! To conclude, this movie is excellent, be sure to watch it - but be aware that disorder depicted has nothing to do with the ideology! It affects all people equally, where ever they live, and whoever they might be!

The movie shows how communist manipulated people and how they spread false paranoia to other people.The main actor even says "you choose you brother and father" probably meaning instead of the regime. They even mentioned a lot of facts and predicted what later happened like"Our grandchildren will spit on our picture" meanwhile the main actor could comprehend that what he was taught to belive in wasn't right and it showed how out of touch with reality he was. I couldn't reccomend it more especially to those people from EX communist countries or countries of eastern Europe.

Best comedy in former Yugoslavia. It describes an epok of communist time when everybody in Yugoslavia was suspicious and some of them paranoid like major character in the movie Ilija Cvorovic.

It is interesting that films from the Balkans always inject comedy into each movie. I think it's proof that every movie can be comedic. This kind of comedy has gradually become "Serbian form". Today, many directors in Hollywood make films in this form. Dušan Kovačević, master of drama can be placed at the head of Serbian films, as the most successful screenwriter of all time. Masters of this art Bata Stojkovic showed magic and once again proved that he is unsurpassable actor. This kind of acting we can't see in Los Angeles or New York. There are Mira Banjac, Bora Todorovic and Sonja Savić who successfully follow the lead actor. Directing by Mr. Kovacevic and Mr. Bota Nikolic is fascinating. With little money to make this movie? This is laudable. All praise for producers. Camus's philosophy of absurdity is passed through the context of the rotten ideology. This is a picture of how Tito affected people. Tito-Stalin relations has caused division in the nation. Many have become paranoid. It is no wonder that this movie came out a few years after Tito's death when his power disappeared. Little man fell into paranoia against the great powers become the spy. Alone against all, he attempts to reveal the conspiracy at a high level.

It's a great comedy, and a good piece of satire that lays bare the hypocrisy of the 'communist' regime in Yugoslavia, which jailed and abused people who genuinely believed in what the party used to stand for.

It is also a warning about the insanity of communism. We see a resurgence of communism in the world today, in the guise of globalism, and it is important that we resist Marxist insanity before it enslaves us in ways that the protagonist of the film never experienced.

My all time favourite movie, ahead of A flew over the cuckoo's nest, No country for old men etc. Hidden criticism over some communist features. Splendid acting and dialogue. Understand antivaxers, flat earthers, trumpist and putists by watching this movie. Understand the break up of Yugoslavia, Sovjet union. Hope there is an English subtitles for you who don't understand Serbo-Croatian... Don't do the remake, just read the subtitles. Actors were living the script, you can not pretend to feel like that.

Ingenious piece of work.

This is not a film about communism and its sowing of fear (as many have written). The film is about paranoia (regardless of the system and social order). The main actor performed the role brilliantly, but I think that only those who lived under communism can understand the ingenuity of mimicry and dialogue. This is my favorite ex Yugoslavia movie.

Well done.