Honeymoons

Honeymoons is the first Serbian-Albanian co-production. It is yet another sign that the cinema of the Balkan countries is currently one of the most interesting cinemas in the world. Honeymoons tells the story of two couples, one Serbian and one Albanian, who for different reasons decide to emigrate to Italy. However they soon find out that grass is not necessarily greener on the other side as they both face unforeseen problems at the border. Honeymoons deals with issues such as racism, immigration, human dignity in a subtle and very effective way. It is very well directed by Goran Paskajevic and the acting is uniformly excellent. A disturbing and quietly devastating film.

Overall I thought this film was outstanding, and both the direction and acting excellent. The themes portrayed are at times cliché and border on frustrating but when trying to highlight the inherited problems the latest generation face with "escaping" from their homeland. The story centres around two couples who both seek a change in their lives and instigate this through a move out of Eastern Europe. Despite the focus of the plot line the film tackles a whole host of themes, but mainly the continued prejudice between Albania and Serbia that has continued despite the end to Enver Hodxa's long lasting dictatorship rule.

The well known Nebojsa Milovanovic portrays Marko superbly well and pulls on his previous experience of Balkan based roles with great effectiveness. Although credit has to go to the full cast who invigorate the script with a sense of urgency and enthusiasm which seems to be common in the recent offerings from other Balkan based cinema.

Despite my expectations on the production and on Paskaljeviç, the movie was deeply disappointing. The dialogs were poor, full of clichés, more than offering art it seemed like the authors were trying to offer a politically correct movie for the foreign festivals. But the "politically correct" mostly turned into false and cliché characters, dialogs, venues, happenings, realities. Than, comes the wedding! 2 weddings, indeed. There seems to be this myth that Balkan weddings are fascinating for foreign audiences. Therefore one every two Balkan movies has a wedding going on. You see people shooting in a wedding happening in the main hotel of Tirana, which is ridiculous, the bride singing opera pieces in a wedding, and followed up by folk songs. By the end of the movie, a Serbian song is sung, which is simply an invention to serve the "politically correct" and to force a plot which does not exist. The way the director used close ups, more than an invention, felt disturbing. There are movies who are fine for the general audience, there are movies who target a finer audience, there are movies made for festival purposes. "Honeymoons" isn't any of those three, sadly.