Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (1981)

A young man grows up in Sarajevo in the 1960s, under the shadow of his good, but ailing father, and gets attracted by the world of small-time criminals. They hire him to hide a young ... See full summary »

Director:

Emir Kusturica

Writers:

Emir Kusturica, Abdulah Sidran

Stars:

Slavko Stimac, Slobodan Aligrudic, Ljiljana Blagojevic

7 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Slavko Stimac	...	Dino
Slobodan Aligrudic	...	Otac
Ljiljana Blagojevic	...	Dolly Bell
Mira Banjac	...	Majka
Pavle Vuisic	...	Tetak (as Pavle Vujisic)
Nada Pani	...	Tetka
Boro Stjepanovic	...	Cvikeras
Zivko 'Zika' Ristic	...	Cica (as Zika Ristic)
Mirsad Zulic	...	Braco Sintor
Jasmin Celo	...	Rasim Top
Ismet Delahmet	...	Midho
Jovanka Paripovic	...	Ljubica
Mahir Imamovic	...	Kerim
Zakira Stjepanovic	...	Meliha
Sanela Spahovic

Storyline

A young man grows up in Sarajevo in the 1960s, under the shadow of his good, but ailing father, and gets attracted by the world of small-time criminals. They hire him to hide a young prostitute and he falls in love with her.

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Plot Keywords:

pimp | first sexual experience | bosnia herzegovina | adolescence | female full rear nudity | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Winner Best Actor (Slavko Stimac) at 25th Panama International Film Festival.

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Quotes

Otec: Women are like salt. You can do without, but it's lousy.

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Connections

Referenced in Maradona by Kusturica (2008)

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Soundtracks

24 mila baci
Written by Adriano Celentano, Lucio Fulci, Piero Vivarelli
Performed by Adriano Celentano
[Sung along to by Slavko Stimac]

User Reviews

Movie that announced Kusturica's arrival on the European film scene

Post written by a person nicknamed No Gods, perhaps just proves that this movie may not be for consumption by audiences outside of the Balkans. He/she completely missed the point. There's so much more to this movie, watching it was of great joy and delight for me.

It gives an honest, simple and raw account of Sarajevo realities back in the 1960s, when it was an expanding city in Tito's Yugoslavia. 'Dolly Bell' offers many memorable snapshots that it uses as setting: teenagers mimicking Adriano Celentano, audiences watching 'Rome by night', couples with children dreaming of moving into new housing complexes built by the communist government, lunches with extended family members, community center struggling to buy instruments for their band.....etc, etc. And all this while the main character Dino (played by Kusturica's favourite Slavko Stimac) is finding his way through adolescence.

Basically, the movie is Kusturica's and Sidran's love letter to their respective childhoods, which happened to take place during an interesting time in Yugoslav history not too long after World War II when the country was being rebuilt under new social order and a tangible sense of excitement of participating in something good and worthy was felt amongst certain sections of its population.

Kusturica would of course go on to make much more serious and challenging films later in his career, but this one shows his ability to successfully deal with simple stories that are not driven by big, complex ideas and don't have an instantly dramatic setting.

Details

Country:

Yugoslavia

Language:

Serbo-Croatian

Release Date:

15 August 1986 (USA)

Also Known As:

Do You Remember Dolly Bell?

Filming Locations:

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kinema Sarajevo, RO Forum, Sarajevo, SIZ za kinematografiju SR BiH

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1