Death of a Man in the Balkans
(2012)
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Death of a Man in the Balkans
(2012)
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| Credited cast: | |||
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Emir Hadzihafizbegovic | ... |
Aca
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Radoslav Milenkovic | ... |
Vesko
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Natasa Ninkovic | ... |
Nada
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Ljubomir Bandovic | ... |
Policajac 1
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Bojan Zirovic | ... |
Grobar
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Anita Mancic | ... |
Vera
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Milica Mihajlovic | ... |
Doktorka
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Branislav Trifunovic | ... |
Policajac 2
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| Rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
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Aleksandar Djurica | ... |
Forenzicar
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| Nikola Djuricko | ... |
Agent za nekretnine
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| Mirjana Karanovic | ... |
Kupac
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| Nikola Kojo | ... |
Kompozitor
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Bojan Lazarov | ... |
Bolnicar
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Milos Samolov | ... |
Raznosac pica
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| Zelda Tinska | ... |
Marina
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After the death of an artistic neighbor, who had no relatives or close friends.
Death of a Man in the Balkans begins with a clearly distraught man turning on a web camera in his apartment. The screen goes black, we hear a gunshot, and we are returned to the point of view of the web camera where the man's body has fallen tantalizingly just out of view. There's a knock on the door, an ordinary looking man - his neighbour - walks in and sees the man's dead body.
So begins a series of farcical exits and entrances, including, but not limited to, neighbours, real estate agents, opportunistic funeral directors, paramedics, police, and amusingly, a pizza delivery man. Each offers their own, unguarded take on the suicide. His neighbours struggle to remember his name, but recall that he was a somewhat well-known composer, the paramedics and police are unenthusiastic and more concerned with their mobile phones than with the dead body. A real estate agent stoically tries to give a lady a tour of this apartment, despite the man's body gracing the living room floor. A pizza delivery man shows up. The composer had ordered it in advance for the assembled crowd.
All this is captured by a switched on web camera, which records unnoticed until the film's last few minutes. Thus the film is presented, convincingly, as one long unbroken shot unfolding in real time. Death of a Man in the Balkans is a funny, entertaining and original look at a man's death and various people's reactions to it. It may not be the best farce out there, but I left feeling satisfied by a film with a great premise, spot-on performances and some very funny dialogue.