Nacionalna klasa

"National Class" is about a guy whose auto-racing career is much more important to him than any other life issue. The movie follows his attempts to avoid both the army and marriage in a matter of week, eventually failing in both. He usually drives around in his Zastava 750, sits at caffe's and takes no significant responsibilities. With a synopsis like this, the first film that comes to my mind is "Once Upon a Time There Was a Singing Blackbird", but this has much more comic input than Iosseliani's movie. Goran Markovic's masterpiece is one of the most beloved Serbian films of all time. It's more than a successful comedy. The highest points are magnificent and clever dialogue, as well as the elaboration and variety of characters, one funnier after another. If you're looking for an empty eye-candy that is likely to win any of the festival nowadays, skip this.

This film should be an example to young Serbian directors of today (Raso Andricu, are you listening) on how to make a quality light, youth-oriented movie.

"Nacionalna klasa" is basically about a young man's reluctance to grow up. It stars Dragan Nikolic as Brana Mitrovic a.k.a. Floyd, a part-time race car driver and full-time freeloader. He's 27, still living with his parents and gives an impression of someone who hasn't put in too many hard working days in his life. Movie follows him through 7 key days of his life during which he:

• tries to weasel out of mandatory military service by faking a kidney disease,

• frantically looks for money to buy new tires for his Zastava Fiat as he's got a big race on the weekend,

• is informed by his girlfriend Vukosava a.k.a. Silja (Gorica Popovic) with whom he maintains a very casual relationship that she's pregnant with his kid and wants to break up, etc, etc...

Movie introduces a bunch of supporting characters too, of whom the most memorable are Mile rent-a-bubreg (Bogdan Diklic) and an eternal film student (played by Aleksandar Bercek) at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts who seems to have it in for famous Spanish surrealist director Luis Bunuel. The right ratio of comedy vs. poignancy is maintained throughout, as to avoid the movie becoming either too frivolous or too preachy.

Will our flawed hero finally become a responsible adult or will he continue his womanizing, mooching and free-spending ways? Well, the movie doesn't say since this is not the kind of major transformation that happens over such a short period but by the end of the flick Floyd definitely doesn't look a care-free guy he did in the beginning of it.

As an aside, it is interesting to watch mid-to-late 1970s Belgrade in the background. This was a definite heyday of the communist, foreign-loan-fueled la dolce vita in Yugoslavia. National basketball team was winning European, World and Olympic titles, people were going to Trieste, Italy on weekend shopping pilgrimages in search of fashionable western merchandise and Goran Bregovic & 'Bijelo dugme' were introducing the mass appeal of rock'n'roll to Yugoslav youth. Unfortunately it didn't last, a slow but steady downhill ride commenced soon afterwards, culminating in what the entire world saw play out in the Balkans during the 1990s.

Despite the somewhat lame plot this has aged rather well - mostly due to good all round performances from some of the usual acting suspects of Serbian cinema, who were in this instance given credible dialogues to work with and were backed by a steady and competent direction by Goran Markovic. The film also takes a fab and unique snapshot of the city of Belgrade in the late seventies, when life and times suddenly became more affluent and marginally less constrained by the country politics. Fuelled by a feel good disco soundtrack (which helped launch the careers of the likes of Aleksandra Sladjana Milosevic and Oliver Mandic amongst others), the movie introduces (albeit diffidently) what is probably the first gay character in Serbian cinema, and delivers a heartfelt homage to a little car with a big soul that tends to break down a bit too often - the famous Fiat/Zastava 750, at the time the most popular car in the country - and the most affordable. An hour and a half of very enjoyable local movie nostalgia depicting some altogether more innocent times. And you can also boogie to the tunes.

Some of the greatest YU actors in a very entertaining drama about a twenty-seven-year-old driver, who in all ways tries to evade the army to advance in a racing career. The film depicts typical Balkan family and general human relations in the time of socialism and the delayed puberty of Brana Floyd, whose life is reduced to avoiding any kind of responsibility, while chasing skirts all over Belgrade, in his racing Zastava 750. In my opinion, one of the best roles of Dragan Nikolic.

7,5/10

So much fun... A simple story, with great characters and fine screen writing, as well as acting. And an unforgettable soundtrack. An unpretentious little film that does everything right. I am not surprised people love it.