Reviews

This short film, as its title indicates lasts only 10 minutes, but it tells a much longer story which unravels only in our imagination upon seeing the end of the film. While 10 minutes in someone's life mean nothing, they can be fatal in another: a boy and his loving family, tragedy in a war-torn city, death and destruction. All in just ten minutes. The film follows two simultaneous story lines: one set in Rome, and one in Sarajevo, in 1994, the worst time of the war in Bosnia. Although the Rome part was not filmed on the original location, that does not take away anything from the quality of the film, it was just a symbolic element anyway. Cast is great, story is very compact and well written, direction dynamic and precise. There is nothing out of place in the film: well structured, stripped of false pathos, realistic, it is very straight forward. In other words, this is a jewel of a film, and it was not by chance that it won the award for the best European short film in 2002. 10 minutes for me is definitely one of the most moving and powerful films about wartime Sarajevo. Behind the scene: I read that the director Ahmed Imamovic, in search of Japanese for the role of the tourist, had to go to the Japanese Embassy in Sarajevo and ask one of the staff to perform in the film. Luckily for the director, the Embassy allowed one of their employees to star in the film.

I saw this film at the Rotterdam Film festival a few years ago. We in Europe do not often get a chance to see Brazilian films. This one was a great surprise after some awful films that were screened at the Festival. The story is interesting, acting is good, there are a lot of comic elements for some good laughs, and it was so refreshing to see a film about ordinary people in a god forsaken place, trying to make a mark in the world. The entire film crew was present at the screening, and were obviously very excited, because the film was screened at the biggest cinema's room which was overcrowded with people. It's a pity films like this never get to the cinemas. Highly recommended, if you're able to find it.

I saw this film at Rotterdam Film Festival, mostly out of curiosity to see my countryman, musician Goran Bregovic (Bogdan) act. The story is interesting, but what I didn't like is lots of clichés in describing two different cultures: on surface cold, refined and controlled Swedish culture reflected in the design of the house (modern, functional, but not warm), and the Balkan culture (in this case Serbia where character of Bogdan is from) as loud, spontaneous, full of life kind of thing. The house is certainly a piece of art, and is like another character in the film, but that was hardly enough to make the film more enjoyable. There was more to explore in the story itself, but the film for me is rather shallow.