"Rane" -- "Wounds"
Coming of age, Serbian style, this harrowing nightmare is set in Belgrade during the Serbian campaign against non-Serbs in 1991-1997. In particular, the hatred of Croats for their collaboration with the Nazis in WW II is the basis for inflating the ancient Serbian Nationalist Psychosis into a chest pounding revenge. Ironically, the Serbs share the same wilful ignorance that inflamed the Germans in Nazi Germany. Television broadcasts spew the same paranoid glorification of violence, while pictures of Sloba are dutifully nailed over mantles.
Seen through the eyes of the narrator, Pinki (Pekic)--first as slothful teenager, then as a young man turned gangster--and his offsider "Kraut" (Maric), the gradual disintegration of life in the city corresponds with the boys' drug induced descent into a sociopathic, almost pre-infantile madness; life stripped of all meaning other than reacting violently to the very next hormonal pimple pop or delusion. In stark contrast to teenagers in countries not 500 kilometres away, these boys spend each moment as if it were their last, and indeed, the future is a joke to them. They are in love with their penises and their guns, firing them often, as they terrorise the helpless, and even at each other in a climax that signifies nothing if not the emptied end of a civilisation historically dominated by unformed male aggression.
Though this is a film of biting black humour, there is little comic relief. Only when Pinki tricks "Kraut's" grandmother into smoking pot (under the ruse of the only tobacco they can find) and snorting coke (medicine from the chemist), do we get a few laughs. And that is because the old woman likes to have a good laugh. But later, when she laughs at the boys on a live TV show, in a bizarre scene in which "Kraut" shoots himself in the leg to show what a macho dude he is, you know the laughter is covering up the horror her life has always been in this very weird part of the world. As for the other women in the film, they are little more than frightened stick figures with powerful vaginas.
Non-Serbs have difficulty understanding what drives the Serbian mentality, but directors like Dragojevic are helping. We are all human beings in the end, with different heredities and circumstances. Don't miss this film, but be prepared to remain pinned to the back of your seat in wide-eyed disbelief.
Rane
Treći dugometražni film Srđana Dragojevića dojmljiva je skica gangsterskih 90-tih u Beogradu. Pinki i Švaba nikako nisu srpski «scarefaces», zaboga, nisu još ni punoljetni. Oni su logičan proizvod nacionalističke anarhije koja je tih godina zavladala Srbijom. Iako je film naišao na pojednostavljenu recepciju kod dijela gledateljstva kako kod nas tako i u redateljevoj domovini (bad guys su mnogima i više nego simpatični pa u svakom kvartu čujete citate iz filma, ako ništa drugo a ono barem legendarno"duuuule savić"), ovaj film zaslužuje puno dublji osvrt.
Prije svega, vrijedi znati da je autor uz režiju diplomirao i psihologiju te da je odrastao u jednom od tipičnih BG-kvartova, Dorćoolu.
Neke su scene snimljene gotovo dokumentaristički. Mislim tu ,prije svega, na prikaz rađanja ratnog ludila u beogradskoj suburbiji 91. , potpuni rasap svih vrijednosti 93. i razočaranje «prodajom mitske krajine" 95. (bravurozni Miki Manojlović u ulozi oca-vojnog lica, ergo "čoveka, druga i starešine"). Utjecaj srpskih medija na kreiranje javnog mnijenja običnog topovskog mesa kao i estradizacija čitave gangsterske scene u "Pulsu asfalta" nisu ništa manje impresivne. Tu je i klasična galerija kvartovskih likova ( lokalni sitni kriminalac turned narodni heroj i ratni profiter, klinac koji bi htio biti veći gangster od gangstera, "dede iz komšiluka", prostituka etc...) Sjajan je to uvod za svakog neutralnog stranca koji bi rado nešto naučio o tome zašto se ovdje ratovalo, a nama koji smo rat doživjeli u Hrvatskoj iz prve ruke dobro objašnjenje surovosti onih s druge strane nišana. Ovim uratkom
redatelj je zaključio sagu o srpkom pogledu na devedesete (ista uključuje i filmove "Mi nismo anđeli" - mirnodopske teme u ratnom okruženju, te "Lepa sela lepo gore" - srpska mladež u bosanskom paklu.) Neki su naučili lekciju a neki su još uvijek ,što bi Svabina baka rekli «stali kod ustaša".
23 май 2008
