Take Me Somewhere Nice

Road movies don't necessarily need to cross the United States. This one is heading East or rather: cross-crossing the Balkans, or parts thereof. An exploration of a country, coming of age, and ambient landscapes. It reminded me of Lynne Ramsay's brilliant Morvern Callar (2002) somewhat, and that's good company. Not your typical road movie or coming of age story then, and a strong debut by Eni Sendijarevic.

I understand people from Bosnia are not much into it, but the same happens with Romanian movies too. I guess it's because they try to capture a story rather than facts. And I liked this story. I liked the way it was told, the acting and the characters. I don't regret for one second watching it, but I'm aware I can't find someone to recommend it to. My tastes are quite peculiar, and this is the word to describe Take Me Somewhere Nice. There's place for better, but that's a universal issue. Still, I love the setting, and even if it's not that accurate, I don't mind that. A great part of what Eastern Europe means was there. As a side note, from what I read, Bosnia sounds a lot like Romania. To conclude, I'd add it to my favourites list. One thing I didn't get. Where is she keeping her phone?

I loved so many shots and frames obviously elaborated in detail in this film. The pace is slow and nice, the play with the feeling of time is perfectly simulating the heaviness of the humid Bosnian summer. I loved how it's so clear how much attention to detail director had, which makes one really respect and appreciate her work, art selection, and all other small things that are about feeding the sensors. On the other hand, the story has suffered more than expected under this strong artistic vision, which is maybe common for debut films and wish to show so much, breaking the story to fit the eye-pleasing pictures, making it unnecessarily too plotty and expectedly "unexpected". But I am sure that with time, with such a strong talent for the visual and strong attention to detail, this director will grow into a known name of the European festival cinema.

If you want wrong picture about Bosnia and Herzegovina, just watch this movie. I can understand if someone who is not from Bosnia make a lot mistakes, but direktor Ena is Bosnian. In this movie, our capital Sarajevo is empty, Mostar is hole, our nature is fried and dry, people don't have life, we don't use credit cards, we are not polite and we don't like familly, we don't like guests... This movie is just mistake and I don't want anyone to take this movie as true fact. I watched this movie at Sarajevo film festival, and I couldn't beleive that organisator put this movie in program. Only one good thing in this movie is acting. Everything else is disaster.

This films is shot beautifully, the director definitely knows how to use color and angles. I wish the story was as engaging as the visuals though. As much as I tried, and even after reading the director's comments about the film, I don't get the message behind it, and it's not appealing to me for numerous reason. The character study is interesting, but not enough. It's a good film, just not my kind of film