The Blacks (2009)

Looking for the enemy, they found it where nobody expected - in themselves.

Directors:

Goran Devic, Zvonimir Juric

Writers:

Goran Devic, Zvonimir Juric

Stars:

Ivo Gregurevic, Kresimir Mikic, Franjo Dijak

4 wins.

Cast

Cast overview:
Ivo Gregurevic	...	Ivo
Kresimir Mikic	...	Barisic
Franjo Dijak	...	Franjo
Rakan Rushaidat	...	Darko
Emir Hadzihafizbegovic	...	Bosanac
Niksa Butijer	...	Saran
Stjepan Pete	...	File
Sasa Anocic	...	Diler
Zivko Anocic	...	Tiho
Bojana Ordinacev	...	Serbian Reporter (voice)

Storyline

War. A city under the siege. The truce has been recently signed, and the squad known as the 'Blacks', who used to do the dirty jobs, needs to be disbanded. Ivo, the squad commander who has lost three of his soldiers, prepares the action to retrieve their dead bodies from the forest and, despite the ceasefire, blow up the dam, thus causing a great damage to the enemy: The survived members of the squad, tortured by their personal doubts and guilt, move into action. On the battlefield, they find the enemy they are searching for is in the place they least expect - inside themselves.

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Plot Keywords:

human rights | independent film | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | War

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Details

Country:

Croatia

Language:

Croatian

Release Date:

3 February 2010 (Croatia)

Also Known As:

The Blacks

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kinorama, Hrvatska Televizija (HTV)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

75 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Official submission of Croatia for the 'Best Foreign Language Film' category of the 83rd Academy Awards in 2011.

User Reviews

Fighting the "war inside" after the "war outside" is over

The movie was heavily promoted over different channels in the Ljubljana film festival 2009, so the tickets were sold out long before screening, hence there was high expectations involved for that movie. Sadly many were not reached. Since the movie begins on the end and then travels back in time for one day to give as an explanation of what happened, the suspense or anticipations is probably deliberately, removed to give more space to character build up. Now that the war is "over", every member of the special unit has to wage the war with inner daemons of guilt of what they were doing during the war and the mistakes they made, that got them to these situation. The idea was good, but we all saw it many times before. The pragmatic general politician persuading the on-the-field general to stop the "dirty" operations since there is ceasefire, failed marriage, the junkie realizing that dope will not wash away the guilt, the rookie with his secret, saddened brother, the they-were-cold hearted-bustards-as-well tape. The movie should be cathartic and we should wash our since thru the characters, but it leaves us unaffected and we understand what happened even before the flash back in time starts explaining the "complexity" of their problem. Everybody suffers in war, you loose your humanity and you can't cry it back on the end. Good people die bad people die guilty people die innocent die and on the end there is cease-fire but the real peace comes when all involved are dead and the emblems of the squads are just one of the collectibles items non different then football badges.