Treto poluvreme (2012)

Determined to build the best football club in the country, Dimitry hires the German coach, Rudolph Spitz, to galvanize his rag tag team but - when the first Nazi tanks roll through the city and Rebecca, the beautiful daughter of a local banker, elopes with his star player, all Dimitry's plans must change.

Director:

Darko Mitrevski

Writers:

Darko Mitrevski, Grgur Strujic (co-writer)

Stars:

Katarina Ivanovska, Sasko Kocev, Richard Sammel

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Katarina Ivanovska	...	Rebecca
Sasko Kocev	...	Kosta
Richard Sammel	...	Spitz
Rade Serbedzija	...	Don Rafael
Emil Ruben	...	Garvanov
Mitko Apostolovski	...	Dimitriy
Verica Nedeska	...	Jamilla
Igor Angelov	...	Afrika
Toni Mihajlovski	...	Pancho
Gorast Cvetkovski	...	Skeptic
Oliver Mitkovski	...	Yordan
Ivica Dimitrijevic	...	Prof
Aksel Mehmet	...	Shiljo (Goofy)
Dimitrija Doksevski	...	Gengys
Milan Tocinovski	...	Manga

Storyline

Determined to build the best football club in the country, Dimitry hires the German coach, Rudolph Spitz, to galvanize his rag tag team but - when the first Nazi tanks roll through the city and Rebecca, the beautiful daughter of a local banker, elopes with his star player, all Dimitry's plans must change.

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Plot Keywords:

football | bulgaria | soccer | holocaust | 

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Genres:

Drama | History | Romance | Sport | War

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Republic of Macedonia Czech Republic USA

Language:

Macedonian German Ladino Bulgarian English Serbian Spanish

Release Date:

27 September 2012 (Republic of Macedonia)

Also Known As:

The Third Half

Filming Locations:

Macedonia

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kino Oko, fx3x, I/O Post

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, Narrative Award Winner: 2014

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Goofs

The film contains several factual mistakes that are very easy to be checked, because there is a video and photo archive of this football match between FC Makedonia and FC Levski in the archive ot SS.Cyril and Metodius National Library in Sofia. For example, nowhere in the meeting is not waving Nazi flags, like shown in the movie. The film argues that the players of FC Levski raise their hands in a Nazi salute "Heil Hitler", but as the link below shows that hands of both of the teams are raised and it is not a Nazi salute, but simply hands raised in the air. At the second photo from the link below you may see that actually as a Nazi salute "Heil Hitler" have raised the players of FC Macedonia. One more factual mistake is that at the movie is shown that the Bulgarian administrative and military authorities are deporting the Jews from Skopie and two more cities to the gas chambers of Treblinka. The truth is that the Bulgarian police at this area is under german control. Factual mistake is that on the carriages used for the Jews deportation is written "BDZ" (Bulgarian State Railways), but at the photos from the same period is visible that this is not true, because in fact the carriages arrives from Germany and they belong to the Third Reich.

User Reviews

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.