Der Schein trügt

I've been watching film for 3 times and every time I find something new. Pretty Villages... isn't the hardest film anymore, this one is. Cause it reveals what happens to the faith when it reaches human hands. The idea of morality and ethics cannot come to life no matter how hard God tries to make the world a better place - humans are damaged goods.

If you are not into films that require you to think and talk about watching hours after, this piece of art isn't for you.

Knowing the complete oeuvre of Srdjan Dragojevic's filmography, this movie sadly lacks a lot to become at least a pale reflection of his early work.

In the opening 15 minutes, one thing strongly caught my attention: the acting was utterly bad, unconvincing and a bit forced and somehow everything (acting, dialogs, etc.) seemed very cheap.

Known as a kind of liberal, neo-communist, it seems that with this film he wanted to mock the concept of religion in a clumsy quasi-intellectual way.

Instead of building a strong plot, a lot of shots seem unnecessary, some characters as well, which all together makes the plot of this movie disorienting.

Inspired by Marcel Aima's short stories, Dragojevic tried to lean on his early movie success, but instead of something refreshing, we got nothing more than beating a dead horse.

The movie was not quite what I've expected, but the good things is - it exceeded my expectations. Very good portrayal of living in Balkans and its value system.

The movie could be basically separated into three parts. The first part was for me the most enjoyable and comical. This was the part of which the trailer was also introduced with. So I really didn't know that the movie would be sliced up like that. The first part introduces a man who suddenly gets a halo on his head and the family stars to remove it any way they could. The other two parts were basically like two other movies which had nothing to do with the beginning. So I really don't understand why to make 3 different movies when you've got a nice idea for the first part. I really don't know why this movie was over 2 hours long, it just didn't work for me. I'm really sad because I loved the first part and the movie would get at least 8 stars of 10 if they would have continued from there or stopped the movie at 80 minutes or so.

This film raises few important questions.

1. Which drugs was Dragojevic using when making it? It obviously gave him some rather creative ideas but sadly not the capacity to develop them into anything comprehensive, meaningful or even entertaining.

2. How was this movie financed? If any of it is done with tax payers' money, we would like a refund. If anything, this movie has highlighted that just because a renowned name is directing a film, even though it unites the whole Balkans, it can still be a complete waste.

Finally I would recommend to the artist to seek therapy for some traumas he obviously suffered during his formative years and to stop taking it out on the spectators in the form of unnecessary violence.