Duga mracna noc

Great director. Antun Vrdoljak showed to us that not only he can make a spectacular, also that he can present the true horror in Croatia. Good plot, good actors (G.Visnjic and G.Navojec were great!) But I wanted something else. I don't know what, but I expected more(I don't say the film wasn't bad, in fact, it was excellent), but I just thought it will show something else. Because the story is going to fast, you can't know what will happen in the next moment, and things are happening in every moment. But I liked the film, enjoyed the series, loved the plot, the actors, the director.... Looking it in a perspective way, this film was a true story about the horrible things that happened in Croatia). So, if you're interested in watching this film, I truly recommended it!

Contrary to one of the previous comments, this movie hasn't got anything to do with propaganda. Its main character Iva (Goran Visnjic) is an apolitical moralist who has problems with followers of all tyrannic ideologies that have influenced his country short time before, during, and short time after the Second World War: Partisans, Ustase, Nazis and Communists, and likes none of them. More modern political issues weren't touched by this movie at all, and therefore it can't have anything to do with propaganda. It shows certain kinds of terrible things that happened to ordinary people in every war in history from a perfectly human and apolitical perspective. It doesn't incite either national, ideological, or religious hate. In my opinion, this is one of the best movies ever made in Croatia. Even though Croatia makes quite a small amount of movies per year, and even though most of them aren't very good, I believe this movie can without second thoughts be said to be better than any average movie filmed in, say, Hollywood.

As I said, this movie is an anti-war movie about the madness and awfulness of hate, murder, and sorrow bred by the war and their influence on lives of ordinary people. Iva has a normal, happy life until the Nazi regime takes over the government of Croatia. He saves the life of his Jewish friend, and he is forced to join the Partisans (the first antifascist movement on the European soil) because Gestapo is after him. The former Partisans come to power after the War and set Communism as the country's ideology. New government's politics are causing misfortune to the common people, and Iva frequently has to use his influence as a former Partisan colonel to save his friends from the regime. When he, during a family dinner, calls Yugoslav president Tito 'A selfish egocentric and a world-class snob', his brother-in-law, an officer of the secret police, has him imprisoned as a political prisoner. This leads to a whole series of unfortunate events, including the suicide of his wife, and Iva spending four years in Yugoslavia's most notorious prison. After the film's merry beginning, and its depressing main part, comes an ending filled with optimism. Many more things happen between the events I've mentioned; the movie is almost three hours long. It's well directed, and is possibly one of the most modernly made Croatian movies. I'd sincerely recommend to anyone, even if they are not from ex-Yugoslavia, because I think it's, objectively speaking, a good movie.

This film is a result of a Croatian wannabe director wanting to make a Hollywood type historic spectacle. Naturally he flunked big time. Film even includes great Hollywood star Goran Visnjic??? If you are interested to see how bunch of Slavonians coped with WWII tragedies by drinking hard liquor, playing their 'tambura' instruments and saying cheesy lines during the not so short duration time of 200 minutes of theatrical emotional expressions and bad acting, go ahead... My subjective opinion is that if you can't make a point in 90 or 120 minutes, why even bother and 200 minutes, come on, quality before quantity. But you could probably enjoy this movie if you are interested in Croatian films in general, because this is a very specific school of film mainly based on politically funded comedies, social drama and war films.

On April 2, 2005 I went to the "Cinema Croatia" film festival in Santa Monica to see DUGA MRACNA NOC. Goran Visnjic was there to introduce the movie. He explained that the movie is a distillation of scenes taken from the Croatian TV series, of the same name, that is presently airing in his homeland. He further explained that the 5 1/2-hour long, original director's cut, was edited down to the award winning (Pula Film festival), 3-hour theatrical release that was Croatia's official submission to the American Academy Awards best foreign film committee.

I enjoyed the film and think Goran Visnjic masterfully portrayed of Iva Kolar, and made the character so real that I was immediately drawn into the movie. Mr. Visnjic's talented use of body language and facial expression, as well as the particular way he delivers his lines, is nothing less than genius.

"DUGA MRACNA NOC" is an intense story about how friendship and personal loyalty can ultimately mitigate the ravages of intolerance, war, and political upheaval. Its message of personal honor and love of humanity is something any one can relate to, and learn from.

I am also following the progress of the TV series, "DUGA MRACNA NOC," now airing on HRT, via the detailed descriptions and dialog translations sent to me by a Croatian pen pal, as well as from watching video clips of the TV episodes that can be found at the Bleu Profond website (see miscellaneous links at IMDb's Goran Visnjic page). I look forward to obtaining the TV series as soon as it is published as a DVD or video.

Nancy Lion-Storm

This is one of the most expensive Croatian movies ever made. Unfortunately, one of the worst, too. This epic by Antun Vrdoljak, with its controversial evocations of the second world war in Croatia, represents the hard line and its seems like a high budget propaganda of "state" cinema. Vrdoljak doesn't know that social and cultural, instead of political, criticism penetrated much deeper and proved itself to be far more lasting than any type of political confrontation. In fact, that's not a movie but a series of "wise saying" spoken by the one-dimensional and totally unnatural and affected characters. Very boring and awkward direction, graced with the terrible acting makes this movie as one of the worst ever made in Ex-Yugoslav countries.