Ispod crte (2003)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Petar Krelja

Writers:

Drago Kekanovic (writer)
Petar Krelja (writer)

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Leona Paraminski	...	Zrinka
Rakan Rushaidat	...	Toni Pozgaj
Filip Sovagovic	...	Ivan Pozgaj
Jasna Bilusic	...	Dragica Pozgaj
Relja Basic	...	Antun Pozgaj
Nada Subotic	...	Irma Pozgaj
Anja Sovagovic-Despot	...	Patricija Pozgaj
Dubravka Ostojic	...	Ruza
Buga Simic	...	Klara Pozgaj
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Csilla Barath-Bastaic	...	Bolnicarka Nina
Dragan Despot	...	Josip Genc
Nada Gacesic	...	Zora (as Nada Gacesic Livakovic)
Zijad Gracic	...	Elio
Ivo Gregurevic	...	Mate Vranar
Goran Grgic	...	Inspektor
Zvonimir Jelacic-Buzimski	...	Pacijent (as Zvonimir Buzimski)
Hrvoje Keckes	...	Hrvoje
Nada Klasterka
Ivan Kujundzic	...	Policajac s megafonom
Tanja Kursar	...	Susjeda Tanja (as Tanja Miksic-Kursar)
Sanda Langerholz	...	Ljubica (as Sanda Miladinov Langerholz)
Daria Lorenci	...	Ljecnica iz hitne
Mirjana Majurec	...	Bolnicarka Nada
Lela Margitic	...	Bolnicarka Vlasta
Sinisa Popovic	...	Lijecnik
Kristijan Potocki	...	Policajac 2
Janko Rakos	...	Policajac 1
Mirjana Rogina	...	Hrvojeva mama
Drago Utjesanovic	...	Tihi
Ranko Zidaric	...	Mirko

Runtime:

Croatia:105 min

Country:

Croatia

Language:

Croatian

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Samobor, Croatia

Company:

Hrvatska Radiotelevizija (HRT)

failed attempt by Krelja to leap from documentary to fiction

Of 200 movies I've seen lately, I'm afraid this rates as one of the worst.

The acting in title roles is amateurish. I really don't understand how it can be this awful. The script is melodramatic - so much that you might spend more time rolling your eyes than looking at the screen. The soundtrack is plain bad.

Another fault is that it plays like a tacky virtual postcard of Zagreb, the new independent country's capital. The inferiority complex of the authors seeps out of every frame. For example, they make sure the part of main character's family is high-class and lives in a bourgeoisie mansion in an aristocrat quarter, the detail which the movie could have perfectly done without. The other part of the family, again, is unnecessarily low-income. The girl (played by remarkably attractive Leona Paraminski, whose looks are here unfortunately the only credit to her name) drives an old Renault 4, that's supposed to evoke nostalgic memories of good old common Croatians(the film takes place in year 2003, however, not one soul in Zagreb drives the once popular car anymore). Next detail in a depiction of Croatia as cool and western: the main guy's friend is a gangster. But it isn't a gangster movie. You even get to see a bomb explode, and a display of Croatia's police force (camera in bird's view, ha ha). But don't think that the bomb has anything to do with gangsters. No, no, no. That wouldn't be melodramatic at all. Try a war veteran suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder trying to blow himself to pieces.

There's a whole plethora of nationalistic undertones in the movie: the father is a veteran of the Croatian war for independence. Which is fine, but in one early scene they mention matter-of-factly how his friend, also a human shell, was in a concentration camp (of course, we never meet the guy). It's understood that it is the Serbian concentration camp (it should be mentioned here that in the Croatian-Serb war, Croatians as well had the concentration camps. For the Serbs.) The mention of cocentration camps adds nothing to the story, but if the intent of the writers was to hurl accusations and unnerve potential Serb viewers, they accomplish their mission. How smart, when Serbia is the largest foreign part of Croatian film market. This just goes to show that this is more of a nationalistic propaganda than a serious movie.

I'm sorry, but the director Petar Krelja should really have just stuck to making his documentaries he is known for.