Serbia, Germany, Sweden

Synopsis

In the town of Bor, a deteriorating mining centre in southeast Serbia, lives King. He is a man of about 40, once a miner, now a local bar owner. He was once involved with Ruzica, the town beauty and the wife of his boxing coach Animal. When Animal found out about their affair, Ruzica killed him. After seven years in jail Ruzica comes back to Bor. She goes to see King, only to find out that he is involved with another woman: her young daughter Rosa.

Director's Statement

This is a movie about longing for escape from the destiny of anguish and hopelessness. This is a movie about people who live on the edge of existence, from day to day, with no future and with dreams that surpass them, because life itself surpasses them. This is a movie about destruction and collapse. This is a movie about longing for living and longing for death. And most of all, this is a movie about indestructible life, because lives can, but life cannot be destroyed. The movie takes place in the mining town of Bor, once a symbol of Yugo-prosperity, now a mouldering symbol of its deterioration. Realistic setting with very little scenographic interventions. Hand-held camera to produce the necessary dynamics, tele-lenses the poetic effect and Cinemascope the scale. The acting is hyper-realistic. The lines in the songs are pronounced like realistic dialogue. Acting is naturalistic. Acting without acting. Songs in the movie are sung as a part of the action without a pause in storytelling. The music is an original score - Balkan tango, passionate and heart-breaking. Totals (wide frames) are essential for this movie. Wide frames of the town of Bor, the deep mining shafts, the vast polluted lake, huge vacant factories, disused chimneys and endless blocks of socialist apartments. The film is about a search for freedom and escape, doomed by fate and the dark side of the human soul. It happens in a decaying world where the most powerful man is powerless to change his own destiny. It’s a dance with the devil, a Balkan Tango in a Balkan hell, where to love is only to die.
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Cast & Crew

Directed by: Oleg Novkovic

Written by: Milena Markovic

Produced by: Uliks Fehmiu, Milena Trobozic Garfield

Cinematography: Miladin Colakovic

Editing: Lazar Predojev

Production Design: Aljosa Spajic

Original Score: Boris Kovac

Cast: Uliks Fehmiu, Hana Selimovic, Jasna Đuričić, Nebojša Glogovac, Boris Isaković

Nominations and Awards

  • Feature Film Selection 2011