Circles

first - it is not just a movie. but an experience. a special one. because , more than images, music, acting, it is a web of questions about small , usual everyday things. it is expression of a splendid precision to give to a not extraordinary story, at first case, soul, force and blood. it remains many other great European films. but it is not a shadow. or an answer. only a question. few amazing scenes . a great director. salt taste. ash circles. and the measure as axis of a group portrait. it is not a bad idea to see it. why ? for discover a world questions. for few memorable scenes. for Aleksander Bercek silence, for Nikola Rakocevic character nuances, for Hristina Popovic in skin of storm, for the art, splendid art of Srdan Glubovic.

If this film were a state of mind, it would be that sense of comprehension before inhaling your last breath. If this film were an emotion, it would be the weeping of an abandoned child. If this film were a person, it would be one reeling due to great loss. Still, it is all of these, and more – it is about liberation. The camera-work takes us around in circles - the clear Hercegovan sky, the clinical void of a Belgrade hospital, the barrenness of western capitalism. We are reminded that life gives no more than what is put in. But also, this film is about balance, about loss of son and gain of father, about deliverance through goodness and imprisonment through evil, and about setting things right in order to be able to take in air again. Could it be that this work of art is finally (after 20 years, from 1993-2013) giving us a chance to atone for endorsing fratricide, if by nothing but by conceding to it? Serbs must exonerate themselves to be able to resume living in the homeland. As for us Yugoslavs, perhaps can finally exit the circle of remorse for the demise of our land and find some redemption and peace of mind.

In a war-infested country, behind the lines, a soldier on leave interferes to save the life of an innocent man from another ethnic group, being beaten by his fellow soldiers. He ends up being beaten to death instead.

20 years after the war, one finds himself thinking about who were the true war heroes. An utterly pointless act, to risk your own life in a havoc in which a human life is wasted in the blink of an eye, for someone you barely know, is something one can see only on screen. In reality, most of us are those who watch, who witness, but dare not interfere.

One man did interfere, and lost his life, seemingly pointlessly. The only child of a widowed father, with a fiancée whose life would become a sad and tragic story of a drifter afterwards, and the gang of murderers sentenced to ridiculously short sentences. Was it worth it, are good deeds worth it in general? There's an ironic English proverb saying that no good deed goes unpunished. But the story tells that even a rock thrown in water makes circles that grow and spread. In this case, circles of compassion that go through space and time and inspire many. Circles that help us find inner courage to stand up to injustice, that help us find the compassion to restrain us in revenge upon the innocent.

This film was inspired by a true story. The story of Srđan Aleksić, a Serbian soldier on leave who was beaten to death in 1993 by his fellow men, while trying to save Alen Glavović, an innocent Muslim civilian, who was being beaten before him. Out of the four rascals, only one expressed regret in the court. Ironically, he was the only one to meet death shortly, within a couple of months, shot on the front line, where all four were sentenced to. Srđan's father wrote in his son's obituary "He died fulfilling his human duty".

The circles that the rock of Srđan's deed made are those which eventually made him the only war-hero respected and cared for on all the opposed sides. What strikes me most were Christ's words that "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." Those circles keep showing us that such deeds of the greatest love are possible and were made by a man who had lived among us, and who never lived to see his family growing and his children being born, unlike us, the silent witnesses, who take so much pride in love we feel and share.

The names are altered and the rest of the story is entirely fictional. Being a person from the region, there was little in the film for me not to be fully understood and grasped. Therefore, I am somewhat reluctant to recommend it to worldwide audience, fearing if its universal message would break through the local context it took place in. But I do. Here is an excellent, slow and heavy Serbian drama with little action, much dialogue and fine acting, telling us the aftermath of a well known story, and circles of compassion, forgiveness, courage and inner purification.

R.I.P. Srđan Aleksić 1966 — 1993

Summary says it all. This is one of best movies I have ever seen, and masterpiece of Serbian cinematography. It's really well done technically, and not revealing everything until very end, but giving hints all way along about why characters are acting the way they do. It slowly raises history, revealing one event that scarred all for life.

It's based on true story of Serbian soldier in Bosnia during wartime, and it follows characters to present day, showing how incident in Bosnia haunts them. Movie is pretty hard to watch, because of very thought of situation. It gets emotional at some points, where characters finally leave history behind, or do something that honors the memory of incident. This movie also shows global atmosphere during Yugoslavian civil war, pretty much pointing out that ordinary people did not want to wage war. It has subtle cinematographic effects, revealing more than there is to plain sight.

As a person who likes movies, I will leave criticism and reviews to people that are paid to do that. However I will recommend this movie as a must-see to everyone reading this.

Even if it does not entertain you, Krugovi is certainly a movie that makes you think (about life in general, but also about Balkan history in particular). In troubled situations and extreme conditions, the ugliest and the most beautiful shades of the human soul reveal together. The tricky thing is that they seem to appear inter-connected, so a terrible bad might be the reason and the circumstance of some extraordinary good. The movie is inspiring, it is about hope in humanity, about people who act as human beings, even in that moments where the animal instinct reigns over the world. Souls talk, people not too much. There are rough characters, that create strong ties based on common memories. In spite of all, they seem to have an inner need to do the right thing. All the stories from this movie start from the same point, Marko a soldier in the Bosnian War is beaten to death because he was trying to defend a Muslim from harassment and possible death. Few years later, the characters of that scene arrive to deal again with each other.