Go West

The best one movie from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Amazing story about love, war and more. You must watch film "Go West". Great! Wonderful! Top! 10/10. Alen Albinovic.

I saw this film tonight at the Image Out Film Festival in Rochester and what I saw is a powerful story about both love and hate reaching across ethnic and religious boundaries.

The love is what Mario Drmec and Tarik Filipovic have for each other. Same sex couples have it bad enough there, but in this case Mario is a Moslem from Bosnia and Tarik is a Serb.

The story is told to us in flashback by Mario being interviewed by a French journalist played by Jeanne Moreau. As Yugoslavia breaks apart the various ethnic groups resume all their ancient hatreds and start killing each other with vehemence as we all read in the Nineties.

Mario in order to pass into the Christian Serbian area goes into drag. It seems as though the Christians check out the privates of all the males and if they're circumcised as Moslems have to do as well as Jews they're summarily shot. The ruse works, but the lovers have to continue the masquerade when they get to Tarik's village. Or at least until a helpful friend can obtain the necessary documents to go west to the other side of the Rhine in Europe. Of course when someone does discover the ruse there are unforeseen consequences.

Yugoslavia itself was a creation of western European fatuity. Serbia was on the Allied side of World War I and they got a kind of hegemony over a whole lot of territory formerly belonging to both the Hapsburg and Ottoman Empires. At Versailles the Serb king was made monarch over the whole polyglot nation and after World War II, a very charismatic leader named Josip Broz Tito led an independent Marxist/Socialist government.

When Marshal Tito died, the country itself died. Held together by an extraordinary man the one thing Tito did not do was solve any ancient hatreds. What happens here happened all over what was Yugoslavia, only this story has gay angle to it.

Love, even same sex love can bridge all kinds of boundaries if we're open to it. The friend who is helping the lovers urges them to go west to western Europe where they can live free and prosper. All they have there is ethnic hatred.

One other very valuable lesson here is that the film does focus on the atrocities of the Serbs and the Bosnians. Remember this is now a decade where admittedly Moslems are doing some horrible things in many parts of the globe. I am glad that the villain here is not one religion, but a fanatical fundamentalist interpretation of any religion with which people can justify all kinds of barbarism.

Ahmed Imamovic the director has received death threats from all sides in the former Yugoslavia for even creating a story involving gay people there. The man has risked his life for this powerful story, buy a ticket and don't miss it.

Sad to say, the film's prediction that "they will continue to hate homosexuals" is coming true. I have just come from seeing this film at the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Religious leaders in the former Yugoslavia have been condemning this film, because of the same-sex love story. It's hard for me to square some of the comments of critics with the film I just saw. This film speaks to the future of humanity itself. It is not just the love story between the two men in this film that matters--and it does matter, mightily--it is also the conflict between savagery and mercy in the Serbian townspeople and the Muslim protagonist. In the midst of horrific brutality, we are reminded of the immense power of compassion, love, and even sometimes, humor. This film isn't just about war, it's also about peace. It needs to be seen around the world. I hope it will be.

Somebody smart once said something to the effect if there is a need for a prologue, than director did not do his job correctly. I cannot agree more. Unfortunately Go West spends first two and a half minutes on prologue, boring prologue to be precise. Completely unnecessary. From there on, the movie spends more time on unnecessary details, more voice from the off, more explanations of unnecessary details, watering down the film I am sure would mean a lot if done as it should.

It must have been hard to come up with the idea of two homosexuals running away from the Sarajevo, because Sarajevo was never eager on homosexuals. I have spent there more than half of my life and I have met only two openly gay man. Compare that to my current place of living where I know at least a dozen openly gay man. Attacking homophobia in Sarajevo is very dangerous and brave undertaking, and for that I need to congratulate Ahmed Imamovic and Enver Puska. That was brave. Unfortunately brave writers and directors do not equal a great movie. However, this one is a good movie, a bit clumsy in some areas, but overall quite watchable.

If you expect something like Queer as Folk, than you will be disappointed. No sex scenes to that level. I guess because actors and the rest of the crew were quite scared for touching the topic. Well, that would be all but Tarik Filipovic, one of two main actors, who played homosexual in another Bosnian movie, dark comedy "Dobro Ustimani Mrtvaci". I guess the fact he lives in Zagreb, Croatia gives him more freedom to take on roles that bring hate mail and death threats that could eventuate into something awful if he was living near those who wrote them.

Watching this movie will annoy you. Sometimes the characters do not act as sane people would, and everything is a bit stretched, but this movie has other good points and is important maybe not as a great movie, but as a first movie that tackles homosexual love in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This portrayal of the oppression and discrimination that existed in Bosnia-Herz... is eye opening. Not only was the lead hated and oppressed because he was Muslim, but also he was further despised because he was gay. I would rate this movie even more important than America's Brokeback Mountain. I am openly stating that this is the best movie I have ever seen at Toronto's InsideOut Film Festival throughout it's 16 year run. Congratulations to this film's creators. You had me riveted to the screen from the moment the film opened. I am waiting to find out where I can purchase this movie on DVD to add it to my personal library.