Otvorena vrata

Simply the best forever. Cakana, Bata, Ana, Voja, Milica, Dragance, Ugrinovic .... are an integral part of my childhood.

Have you ever seen a family like this: - slightly neurotic mother - father who cheats the mother - male child who is sick all the time - daughter philosopher - uncle who is always afraid of something - uncle's daughter, a freaky teenage girl - many strange and twisted neighbors? If you haven't, my suggestion is to watch "Otvorena vrata". "Otvorena vrata" aka "Opened door" is probably the best Serbian TV-series ever. Althoug all the scenes were taken in one apartment, all of them are authentic and realistic. Wonderful screenplay, great characters and best acting (Vesna Trivalic, Bogdan Diklic, Bojana Maljevic, Olivera Markovic, Milan Gutovic, Vlasta Velisavljevic, and many others) made of this one great series. Unfortunately, it had been shown only a couple of times, so the spectators couldn't see how good it it. I hope some day there will be some reprises! Well, watch it and you will see how good it is!!!!! You will laugh as much as I did!

Most beloved series ever. All the actors, all the episodes, all these years, the sequel, everything is legendary.

"Otvorena Vrata" was the first Serbian attempt to do something completely fresh and different, compared to other TV series, which were more like soap operas. For the very first time, Serbian TV produced an authentic sitcom. It was a risky move, but it payed off. The concept with live audience would be way too much for Serbian TV standards, but at the end, it wasn't necessary at all. Here's what makes this TV series so great. First of all, plot is great. Single mother, Katarina is a sophisticated artist, who does sculptures and other post-modern gizmos. She lives in a rather fancy flat with her brother Svetislav, a guy who could easily be compared to Del Boy from "OFAH". He is always into business, trying to make some money and get rich. Note the specific situation in Yugoslavia back then (hyper-inflation, embargo,...). Then, there is Milica, Katarina's daughter obsessed with politics, philosophy and sociology. The smartest character of them all, with sophisticated sense of humor. Katarina's older child, and Milica's brother, Vojkan, is nice bloke, always willing to help his uncle Svetislav, but with one remarkable "quality": he is a hypochondriac. Then, there's Ana, Svetislav's daughter. Her mother was Svetislav's high school flame, and Ana spent her childhood in USA. She is wild and restless girl, a bit "rough around the edges", crazy about motorcycles. Deep down, she's a "softy". There are three more characters that should be mentioned: Katarina's ex-husband, Dragoslav, a not-so-successful-businessman trying to make a dime, then, their next-door neighbor, Mrs. Angelina, retired professor of solo and music, and at the end, another neighbor, Ugrinovic, an alpinist, who spends his time by hanging on the wall of the building and who is in love with Katarina. This TV show was a huge success back then. Unfortunately, there was no sequel. However, this proved to be the best Serbian TV series ever. I hope that it will be soon released on DVD, because it would be a shame not to have this master-piece in digital format.

Since beginning of Yugoslav television, comedy programs about contemporary society mostly relied on depicting "ordinary man", and trying to make the audience identify with the main characters. Whole bunch of both movies and series have been reaching extreme popularity among Yugoslav audience, a new and optimistic middle class in Tito's self-managed society: titles such as "Lude godine", "Tesna koža", "Pozorište u kući", "Bolji život" etc. all revolved around "small man" and his adventures in everyday environment.

On the contrary, "Otvorena vrata" completely threw away this cliché, and built a story (in fact, many stories, as each episode is for itself) around completely made-up and exaggerated characters. Placed in highly urban and intellectual milieu, the show refused to indulge mass audiences, and it is not clear how it got financed and aired under such hard circumstances as Milosevic's dictatorship was.

Fast paced, intellectually challenging, but most of the times really hilarious, the show is gaining the deserved acclaim just recently, after several reruns and with a help of Youtube, which is full of funny clips with memorable quotes.

Also, apart from brilliant screen writing (mostly by prized playwright Biljana Srbljanovic), the cast is what really makes it timeless, with top-of-the-line leads, notably Vesna Trivalic and Bogdan Diklic. The only one spoiling the picture is Bojana Maljevic, but luckily not given any important role.