A Perfect Day

Spanish physician Paula Farias (Doctors without Borders) wrote a novel based on her experience in the Balkans and the present film (an English spoken Spanish production) represents the cinematographic transposition of her work.

It's a lovely movie with no plot: it just narrates how common people could spend a day (actually a couple of days) trying to help, in the middle of events enormously bigger than them.

There are no heroes here, only experience. No guilt, just sorrow. No right way to do things besides thinking and wishing to care. And then there is fate, of course.

A (good) way to look at the world.

I just saw a Spanish film that probably enjoyed a limited release in the U.S., although the dialogue is mostly in English – A Perfect Day. In the film, a team of aid workers faces a problem, a corpse is contaminating a well that provides the only potable water in the region, since two other wells are surrounded by mines and cannot be used. The film follows the group as they try to obtain a rope to lift the body out of the well, and examines the difficulties of executing such a small task in a war zone, in this case, the waning days of the Bosnian conflict.

The film resonated with me on several levels. First, of course, I live in the Balkans now, so the language and setting was familiar. (Now I know "konopac" means rope and "bunar" means well!) The landscape in some of the scenes was amazing, and makes me curious to see more of Bosnia now. Second, the cast itself is multinational, reflecting the multinational character of international assistance efforts. This is familiar to me too, since I work in a multinational OSCE Mission. The civilian-military interaction was all too familiar, as were the many scenes with Stryker armored personnel carriers, a common sight during my time in Iraq.

I thought the film provided a very good feel for the frustrations of development work in a war setting. In addition, the dialogue and acting were great. The impressive cast features American Tim Robbins, Spaniard Benicio del Toro, Ukrainian Olga Kurylenko (who was a Bond girl in A Quantum of Solace), Frenchwoman Melanie Thierry, and Bosnian Fedja Stukan. At one point, one of the characters, seeing Olga Kurylenko for the first time, mutters under his breath, "And so where is she from – Models without Borders?" The sub-plot involving the young Bosnian boy, Nikola, who attaches himself to the team, is also great.

This is a powerful film that is authentic in its treatment. I recommend it.

A Spanish film about the Balkan Way and atrocities.

The cast is led by a several Hollywood notables. Decent acting and script. Good pace and cinematography. The movie allows a rare look into the terrible atrocities of civilians terrorizing their neighbors.

As the aid workers try to extricate a body from a well. They are confounded by local apathy and bureaucracy. We do get a look through their eyes as they face jittery militia, armed kids and constant fear of mines and bobby traps.

Faced with daily danger and horrors, some of them develop a cynic sense of humor. They befriend a local boy and we get to see the tragedy faced by the orphans of a civil war.

The feel good ending came as a welcome surprise. Kudos to the director and book author.

I enjoyed it despite the difficult subject matter.

Worth every penny and minute you will spend on it. Just as i was thinking it is impossible to make a good movie without love scenes and explosions , this one came.This movie manages to keep you interested and hooked up without any special trying , its has a simple plot and funny moments there are set very smartly in order to deliver a very nice feeling through all of the movie. Good word to the casting group , the actors very good and well chosen . I also must say that i had no boredom moment through the whole film what so ever , i really was surprised about how well this movie was done without putting in it minimum amount of effort .Its worth mentioning that the movie ,even though it is a little subliminal , is telling a story about a conflict and its told without any extreme was scenes so any audience can watch it.

Beautiful film. I would say even a masterpiece! An excellent acting game,good scenario and cinematography.

Somewhere in the 90s. At the Balkans. The war in Bosnia. A group of aid workers from different countries are trying to help in the middle of a huge after war mess. Trying to do what could be done - in the present case to find a rope, which they could use for taking out corpse from the а well - the only source of fresh water for the local people. During the rope seeking they ran into a bunch of funny or dramatic (mostly both in the same time) situations, but it couldn't be otherwise at the Balkans. ;)

To me "A Perfect Day" is a movie for little things and little actions, which lead to a big change for people.

I highly recommend this movie to all fans to European cinema and to everyone who wants to see something different from all meaningless crap, which flooded us from Hollywood lately.