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Treto poluvreme (2012)
Movie that impacts differently on different types of people
Even though I'm from Macedonia, I will try to review this title from the most objective point of view possible.
I honestly had a higher expectations from this motion picture, simply because I believed (and I still do) that the director Darko Mitverski is a great director. Unfortunately, better director than this movie.
The movie according to my humble opinion is good, but not excellent. Good idea, averagely implemented. The characters are not fully processed and most part of scenes and time on screen is wasted on less important facts (some fictional) for the story line. Emil Ruben and Richard Sammel delivered amazing roles. Toni Mihajlovski and Verica Nedeska too who had small parts proved that all what outstanding actors need is one or two short lines and gestures to make a great role. This is Saso Kocev's first leading role in a movie and that's why I'm gonna give him a break. He really was trying but sometimes is hard to deliver a believable character when you have a partner like Katarina Ivanovska who looks great and breathtaking and nothing else. I don't know much about the movie making process in general, but I most definitely know that you DO NOT sacrifice the whole movie for a couple of camera shots on a pair of perfectly shaped breasts. If I was the director I would have chosen Verica Nedeska for the part of Rebeka.
From an aesthetic point of view (costume designs, photography and scenery) the movie makes positive progress in the Macedonian cinematography but we've already seen all that in the Milco Mancevski movies so yes, progress but nothing unseen or outstanding especially if we consider the money spent on the film.
All in all, I really wanted to fell in love with this movie but it was impossible. I don't react well on movies which try to push down my throat way too pathetic scenes on a patriotic basis. I'm gonna be honest and say that there were some scenes that provoked tears in my eyes but they didn't deliver anything huge. Maybe I'm the problem. Maybe I've already seen too many motion pictures and theatrical performances in my life to blindly shout out loud Hooray!
Two thumbs up beside all. It's better to have any kind of movie, than no movie at all. For all you reading, watch it and make a decision on your own. The third Half it is a movie that impacts differently on different types of people.
Bure baruta (1998)
This movie destroyed the play
I'm from Skopje, Macedonia. The city, the country where this theatrical screenplay was born. Where it has its premiere. I was at the premiere of "Bure barut" in Skopje. It was an amazing play, with wonderful acting, dynamic dialogue and above all, a heart ripping story that leaves you speechless with nothing else to do, but applaud unselfishly at the end of it to the actors and the director.
This movie is the total opposite of everything I saw that night at the premiere in Skopje. Terrible dialogue, boring scenes which last even longer than the ones in the play and above all, when I saw the movie, I realized that they did only half of the screenplay. Did the director of the movie really needed 2 hours to put together 5 relatively short scenes from the play? It is really a shame and a cheap shot to use the play's name to sell more movie tickets across the Balkans. "Bure barut" was a huge hit. It still is. Few years ago, the Macedonian National Theater celebrated Bure Barut's 300th rerun. The play is good, simple and to the point. The movie is unnecessary loaded with characters from different parts of Yugoslavia just for the sake of the average Balkan viewer to point out to that character and say: "Hey, that guy speaks my dialect"...not because it would have a deeper meaning of the story. It doesn't. On contrary, it looks silly.
My point is - bad movie and a total disgrace of the Dejan Dukovski's masterpiece. Whoever knows anything about anything, also knows that you simply DO NOT try to make a motion picture out of a play. This movie proves that theory.
Don't waste your time or money on this. Trust me, I'd be the first to encourage you to see it if it was good. I tried so hard to like it because it's a story from my city, a story from my country. But the movie simply doesn't give you any choice but to feel absolutely nothing after you see it.