L'été dans la vallée d'or

This movie shows real experience of post war city and country. It not only shows problems and irony typical to such city, but also some generic problems in life. Poverty, hope, love, trust and betrayal, faith, effort... It has really all in one. Also funny and cool action of police and mafia. Filthy language which is funny and real for such place in real life too. Hot girls, good actors, good smaller typical things of the society who lives at the bottom (in poverty and problems). I am amazed, touched by emotions, and easily recognize all such lifestyles even today, in same place, and this is funny and sad at the same time. No fake stuff.

The movie is a poor attempt to place the chaos, anarchy and hopelessness that perhaps is a day-life in Belgrade into the streets of Sarajevo. True Bosnians (of all religions!) are people with unprecedented moral, faith sense of humor and optimism that helped them survive the years of siege and continuous murders by Serbian destructor from the surrounding mountains. Don't get fooled, this movie does NOT reflect the Bosnian reality! In my view this is a nicely packed, well hidden cuckoo's egg from the pro-Serbian propaganda. What a waste of time and money, considering the limited number of Bosnian movies produced annually. If you want true picture of post-war Bosnia, watch Well Tempered Corpses. But I challenge the film artist's courage to tell the true stories of people's tragedy and suffering during the years of aggression. Use historic facts, such as genocide in Srebrenica, concentration camps in Dretelj, Omarska, to name a few, as a base for your stories, not some imaginary and besides utterly wrong scenarios that fit with the perceived state of despair in a post-war society.

I think this is a great movie. I watched it for the second time the other day and I liked it even better than before. I like the ability of the director to mix different genres very smoothly. The film starts as a social drama than turns into triller turns into love store and in the end turns into great action film. All that with great dose of humor. This is maybe the only Bosnian contemporary film that deals with present times, real people with real problems. And when it comes to depicting the reality of our society this film is literary unmatched. The actors are fine, cinematography is great, and fx scenes - yes, there are some scenes with fx in Bosnian movie - are fantastic. The only problem I have with the film is rhythm as from time to time from very fast scenes we go directly to very slow scenes and somewhere it doesn't work quite well. But, in the end, I hearty recommend it.

I saw this film at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. It's the first feature film of director Srdjan Vuletic. Vuletic, who was present at the screening, described the film as an ode to the city he loves: Sarajevo. The film's main character is young glue-sniffing Fikret. It's cynical to see that even in a world ruled by post-war chaos 'decadent' western influences are everywhere. Fikret dresses the way the gangster rappers dress in American rap videos shown on MTV. When Fikret's father dies a man appears at the funeral announcing that the father owes him a large sum of money. Muslim honor demands it should be paid before Fikret's father soul can rest in peace. After a unsuccessful attempt to rob an all-night supermarket Fikret's is contacted by a corrupt cop, who also happens to be the father of a girl he fancies. The cop has kidnapped a rich man's daughter and is using Fikret to hide her. In return he will help Fikret to pay off his debt. From here on the film shifts from an social-realistic drama to an exciting thriller against the background of the intense poverty of war-battered Sarajevo. Strangely enough this is not a depressing movie. At times it's quite funny and towards the end if offers some glimpses of hope. The fact that such an powerful and convincing story can be filmed with a great cast of local talents is certainly hopeful. I think we are gonna hear a lot more of director Vuletic.

This film is the best piece of cinema I have had the pleasure of seeing in a very, very long time, period. I enjoyed every minute of it! Yes, it beats the hell out of No Man's Land, my fellow reviewer! It's powerful, eloquent, entertaining and with a great sense of humor. Together with Rane and Normalni Ljudi (two Serbian equivalents), it shows amazing vitality of the people living in the Balkans. The strength to make laugh at its own expense and its stupidity that caused fratricidal carnage of the 90's. It is a true art at its best.

The very fact that films of such quality are consistently coming out of this "backward region" are the best sign that all is not lost, just yet.