Schöne tote Mädchen

This is 'a story in a story movie'. A woman is telling a story from a few years ago to a policeman because her son is kidnapped. And that part of the movie - her story - is great. With 'crazy house' that she moved in, weird neighbours strange situations. I think that the movie would've been better if it had ended with that, without 'the present story'. I really don't see a reason for that kidnapping part. Maybe to extend the lenght of the movie (only 75 minutes), but that just lowered my opinion about this movie. So it's 8, but could have been 9 or even 10 (if it was 60 minutes:-)

Functioning less than a straight-out thriller than an intriguing slice of life in a golden-hued Zagreb in the early naughts, "Fine Dead Girls" presents a decrepit building in the Croatian capital as a microcosm of the former Yugoslav nation and its inhabitants as they try to pick up the pieces from a bloody not-so-distant past. Dalibor Matanic's saga liberally borrows from a lot of classics, but at least he vividly captures the tension and paranoia emanating from each individual, like an ex-army man who ostensibly beats up his wife, to a physician who does illegal abortion in his topmost room, and a man who can't let go of her wife even in death. At the center of such palette of idiosyncratic characters are a young lesbian couple played with understated effectiveness by Olga Pakalovic and Nina Violic. The two initially hide their relationship from a homophobic landlady with a highly chauvinistic son, but are eventually found out and soon find themselves spiraling into societal and moral conflicts. At its best, "Fine Dead Girls" is a meditative introspection into the Croatian psyche during the immediate post-war period, in which various societies struggle to forge an identity following the Balkan conflicts. Matanic doesn't give the film enough momentum to sustain an effective third act but "Fine Dead Girls" deftly paints a convincing portrait of a nation irresolutely trying to welcome every member with open arms regardless of orientation, even as it's raring to return to its feet.

This movie gets my 7/10. It's not a masterpiece, but it still is a very good movie and I would recommend anyone to see it. The topic of intolerance towards "other" sexualities has been dwelled on for a while, but this is somewhat of an unique perspective, since it comes from Croatia.

The story about two lesbians who fall victims of intolerance blends rather nicely with other generalized xenophobic or just plain "weird" traits of the local society. E.g. one of the characters beats his wife and seems to hate everything that's Serbian, so a separate story could probably be told about that family.

Acting is good, but not perfect. It seems to me that many Croatian actors act very conservatively (you have a feeling that they are uncomfortable swearing, or that they just came out of theater where they did Shakespeare). But, it doesn't ruin the movie, it's still very good.

Iva and Maria, a young lesbian pair, rent a favorable, nice dwelling in a less good area of Zagreb, Croatia. But unfortunately, included in the rent are the neighbors, the neighbors from hell. The curious landlady, foreigners flogging nationalists, an old man, who live with his dead wife and a man, who beat his wife regularly, are just one part of this neighbourhood. When one of the neighbors falls in love with Iva, the situation escalates - with the result of three dead people at the end. This is a story about the fight for tolerance and the own life, full of psychological shock effects and colorful pictures about suburban living in the capital of Croatia.

Suffocated life. Intolerance. Free-living. Love and love deviations. Masses of suffocated people walking through streets, shopping in big supermarkets.

Fine mrtve djevojke was the Golden Arena winner(best movie, best directing, best production...) in 2002 at the Croatian Pula Film Festival and the best Croatian movie of the same year.

8/10

A movie was a mirror of a situation in Croatia toward sexual minorities at the time. It is directed by one of best directors in Croatia (Dalibor Matanic)and the cast is also very good (Olga Pakalović, Inge Appelt, Ivica Vidović...). Even so, the pour drama academy in Croatia makes the actors play their rolls both in theatre and on the big screen as if playing a Shakespeare tragedy. Even so, it is a "must-see" movie from modern Croatian cinematography. A dramady, a story of a 2 lesbians that rent a flat hoping to keep their things private turns around like a boomerang when the "nice", old landlady figures out their sexuality. A shocking twist makes way at the second part of the movie. Not a masterpiece, but surely a good movie that occurred in the time when homosexuality in Croatia was thought to be something seen only in USA blockbusters.