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.

A lot of people commenting this film complain about its storyline. The way I see it, you're not supposed to feel sorry for the man who's a cold, heartless prick, but to understand that even the coldest pricks may feel guilt on the verge of death. I think it's very many-sided description of human mind. Both of the characters are having a sort of a personality crisis.

The older man is having conflicted feelings about himself and his past, he has been an asshole, and still is an asshole, and he knows that, but know that he knows he doesn't have much time left, he starts feeling regret, or at least something close to regret. The way that he shows it, is done brilliantly. The man is obviously socially inefficient and not familiar with showing his emotions to other people, and now that it's now or never for him, he desperately tries to do so. It comes clear that he never was too much of a father figure to his own children, and he is trying to take the harm back with his young apprentice, as an absolution.

So if you are the kind of person who wants a main character to symphatize with and to hold thumbs up for in a movie, this isn't the right one for you. But if you are the kind of person who's looking for a shaking movie experience which makes you feel revolted and touched and the same time, i recommend you to watch this.

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.

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.

I haven't submitted a review to IMDb for several years; but have been driven to do so by the extremely negative review above. Spare Parts is an uncompromisingly harsh and downbeat social drama, with scarcely a "pretty" visual or joke in it. It takes a cold, realistic look at many facets of modern life, such as illegal immigration, industrial pollution, what people are willing to do to get money, and our constant search for love and friendship in the most adverse circumstances.

By not taking sides, and by refusing to demonise characters who in other films would be depicted as villains, the director, Damian Kozole, has rightly implicated all of us in the various ills of society with which he deals. All in all, this is a fine film of its genre, and deserves a wider audience.