Rane

One of those in UR face, intense, violent pieces that U won't soon forget...tells the story of three youths and how their lives are shaped by their war-torn surroundings...never had any idea that this movie was going to be so RAW...whoa...a cross between "Natural Born Killers" and "Scarface"...

This movie leaves bitter taste in my mouth and soul, like nothing else I've ever seen. This is the story of one whole generation, a kids just few years younger then me (1972), who have grown up in time and place where most of values ware lost. This is a story of one entire nation (my people) falling down to the very bottom and staying there until they lost all their hopes. This is the story about the little people behind the war and politics, as never spoken so far, since it never happened to You. And finally, this is the story about the fifteen year old boys who's biggest chance in the life was to become a criminals... and they took that chance, never regarding for it.

Actually it makes me feel sick, because it is so true.Man it really was like that.So now it's too painful to watch it.The life in Serbia isn't brilliant now, but I'm glad to see that the age from the movie is gone, and gone!Just to say that advertising of Rane was forbidden by "Milosevic TV"(RTS), and what an irony they had invested in the film. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to see how much of the crap hole life can be!

Dark, bleak, hopeless, harsh, uncompromising, periodically injected with black humor, but overall quite powerful - Srdjan Dragojevic's follow-up to "Pretty Village, Pretty Flame," weaves a tragic coming of age story in Yugoslav capital Belgrade during the turbulent 90's with all the sharp cultural, social, political references and critique one could ask for. This film actually fits more along the lines of "Cabaret Balkan," except that "Rane" has this gangster twist to it. Among the supporting actors I noticed a lot of familiar faces such as Miki Manojlovic, Dragan Bjelogrlic, Branca Katic, Nikola Kojo, who you may be familiar with from films like "Underground," "Black Cat, White Cat," above mentioned "Pretty Village, Pretty Flame" and "Cabaret Balkan" and such. Definitely recommended if you are interested in Serbia/Yugoslavia or Serbian film making.

Take `The Clockwork Orange', add `Trainspotting', add `Once Upon a Time in America'...Throw away all the cinema glamour. Add harsh reality. I do not know what you will get as a result and I can't promise you it will be something good. But if you are Srjan Dragoevic, you will get `Rane' and it will be breathtaking.

I've watched tonns of various movies - & felt like nothing could impress, thrill or shock me - till I've discovered Yugoslavian/postYugoslavian cinema. Black humor. Real passion. Authentic - might be the best definition. The characters are a l i v e and you just wonder how the director managed to put so much pieces of real life inside the picture. What other cinema schools tried to archieve through `experiments' - like Dogma for example - that is to say by inventing boarders, limits & rules for itself - those Yugoslavs did or do by working in often ordinary, may be even classic way - and the main trick is that they seem to have no boarders! The movies I've watched were dark but still they never lacked `lust for life'. Yugoslavian cinema seems to have national specific but always keeps in mind the best examples of European/American cinema. Almost all listed above refers to `Rane'. Mix `Trainspotting' with `Clockwork orange' add a little bit of `Once upon a time in America' & put it on the streets of Belgrade of the nineteth...Take two teenagers who do not know any reality except hatred, violence, crime & poverty - and put them inside the story. One of the most bizzare things for me was - how it reminds the Russia of the early ninteth - rapid inflation, depression & political madness. Two main characters are the guys from my area. It makes me wonder - why former Yugoslavian directors managed to make a number of brilliant movies - trying to expalin what is happening - during extremely hard times - while Russia hadn't already produced even a single good & honest movie about what is happening in Chechnya? Well may be one or two but it is still doubtfull. That's a shame.