Balkanski spijun

In the beginning, I was slightly bored, but in the second half, this movie becomes madhouse you'll never forget. As for the audio-visual experience, it is quite irrelevant whether you watch this movie in the theater or on a mobile phone, but the screenplay and dialogues made history. The acting and anthological monologues of ingenious Danilo Bata Stojkovic are magnificent and, although he has accomplished many good roles, most of us will always remember him for this one.

8,5/10

This Dusan Kovacevic' drama talks about political paranoia of Ilija Cvorovic, ex-Stallinist, the man who spent two years in prison because of his activity. He follows and haunts a tenant in his house - who returned from France. Ilija sees in him agent of imperialist powers, enemy of the state and a foreign spy. The movie is true piece-of-art of Yugoslav cinematography of the 80's. Also talks about relations of hard-line communists and capitalists in liberal-socialist Yugoslavia.

This is in deed not only one of Dusan's masterpieces, but one of the greatest actings I have ever seen. It is based on a play of the same director. As slightly involved in the movie world, I can hardly remember any actor that could perform what Bata Stojkovic did in this film. Perfect drama composition, casting and acting. However, you gotta possess more than narrowed global news awareness film attitude to enjoy humor of a director who is laughing at himself in the movie that depicts self-criticizing of whole nation through the ideologically fallen character of an actor that no Hollywood performer can follow in even much shorter monologue

Film adaptation of a great Dusan Kovacevic's novel - equally good. Recognizable a la Kovacevic humor, full of absurdness, self-irony, sharp and spiritual. Great critic of a dead ideology and authoritarian character translated into a black-humor paranoia of a small man - ideology slave. Brilliant, unforgettable Bata Stojkovic's acting gave this feature strength and rare authentic movie-expression.

As one of the most significant films in the Serbian and Yugoslavian cinematography ever, "Balkanski spijun" is most often regarded as a comedy, which it is only to a certain extent.

The film works on many different levels and it's virtually impossible to judge it after seeing it only once. Serving primarily as a social commentary and a metaphor for a national paranoia towards anything foreign, the film uses its main character Ilija Cvorovic as a vehicle to carry out both humorous and serious situations towards a bitter and somewhat prophetic ending. The great Bata Stojkovic (in one of his best roles here) has masterfully crafted a portrait of a man whose delusions progressively lead him from a state of comical confusion to a tragic crescendo of violence laden with conspiracy theories.

"Balkanski spijun" is a comedy that will make you think before you laugh and a tragedy that will make you laugh before you think.