Rezervni deli

"Spare Parts" is the story of billions of people on our lonely planet.

They may be Slovenian here, but like Rudi and Ludvik, people in most of the world face grim, utilitarian existence and react in much the same ways.

For Ludvik, whose wife has died young, cigarettes and beer are his staples. Furtive runs to the border with Italy transporting refugees in the back of a locked van and an occasional night at the Speedway are all that life has to offer.

At first he disgusts young Rudi who has signed on as a driver. Ludvik farts, he takes advantage of his transports, he charges them 50 Euros for a pizza and more when it comes to young girls who might be coerced into sex. And he coldly remarks that most of the refugees are killed for their organs. The refugees are the spare parts.

But Ludvik has his own humanity beneath the surface. He too is ill. He can't get over his luck that years ago a cigarette company used him as a tester, giving him three boxes of cigarettes free each month. Yet he is dying of cancer and can't quit.

Rudi slowly begins to meet him halfway, hardening a bit of himself to the mistreatment of their cargo and seeing Ludvik for the sad, pathetic soul he really is.

The camera-work is top notch. The film explodes with night shadows and piercing spotlights. Both men are played well by Peter Musewski and Aljosa Kovacic. Not Hollywood names, but believable throughout.

Somewhere just over the border are the bright lights of Trieste, beckoning, colorful.

Rudi and Luvik are real lives, often desperate, often despairing. Set against the backdrop of a nuclear power plant and a nightclub that has all the warmth of a sweat-sock fouled gym, the film breathes slowly, as if life had only so much to offer and couldn't withstand eager gulps.

Rudi and Ludvik reach out to us, without crying out, for compassion. That is their gift to each other and that is the true gift of this gritty film.

I was intrigued seeing this movie available at my local library. I have visited the country of Slovenia and wanted to see what sort of films came from the small but lovely country. With 'Spare Parts' I was quite disappointed.

The story is a look at two Slovenians who smuggle immigrants from Croatia into Italy. I respect the filmmakers approach of examining the film from a purely middle unbiased stance. There's no attempt to sway the viewer's outlook on this is bad and this is good, but with that approach I also had some personal difficulties. The two lead characters were wrong. They were taking advantage of immigrants for economic and personal gain. I understand the plot was based of actual events in Slovenia, but still I was unable to truly connect to the characters.

Another reason I was disappointed was a lack of character development. I felt that Rudi's character was not development enough. Why is such a young person deciding this lifestyle? What events brought him to such an extreme profession? With Ludvik at least the film touched about his reasons and motivations (widowed, cancer victim).

All in all the film just did not grab me. Despite the filmmakers best efforts of having some good moments in cinematography and directing, I just felt the film was blasé. And it was certainly one of the slower 84 minute films I have ever seen.

4 out of 10 stars.

Damjan Kozole is the veteran Slovenian punk rocker whose recent film career seemed quite hectic. `Rezervni deli` is his first full success. It covers the sad fate of two immigrant smugglers who operate in Slovenia and transfer immigrants into Italy. These characters live in Krsko, home of the only nuclear plant in Former Yugoslavia. Their world is plagued by impotence, cancer, guilt, dirt and absence of love. Some vaguely developed angles of the story tend to seem more interesting than the main plot Kozole opted for but in the end we end up wit a well-made, very gritty drama that kicks most of the Former Yugoslav competition out of sight.

Rezervni deli is a film made in a hurry without any preparation. When they were making this film i remember people talking about it saying it will be brilliantly made with the best actors in Slovenia, but look what they made- a boring film which is interesting only to the viewers who come from my home town.(if anyone wants to know i'm from Krsko),plot of this film is a disaster,actors except Peter Musevski(you should have seen him play in Ionecso's Bald singer)don't know the first thing about acting and i won't say anything about Mrs Kozole's work.(it could be better by the way and i hope his next project will be better) I certainly would not recommend it except if you were diagnosed with insomnia.

Spare Parts is a thoughtful, dramatic and very watchable movie about the smuggling of refugees, some of whom may be sold for their organs, hence the title. The main characters are the embittered smuggler and his young sidekick, who has moral objections to how they run the business. The conflict between them produces some of the best scenes of the film.

I thought the film had good production values, the kind of dialog I would expect from modern Slovenians, and a comic moment or two that kept it from being too serious. It's certainly better than most of the predictably weepy dramas coming out of Hollywood, and it has an aspect of social commentary that's welcome in a serious film.