A Perfect Day: un jour comme un autre

Spanish physician Paula Farias (Doctors without Borders) wrote a novel based on her experience in the Balkans and the present film (an English spoken Spanish production) represents the cinematographic transposition of her work.

It's a lovely movie with no plot: it just narrates how common people could spend a day (actually a couple of days) trying to help, in the middle of events enormously bigger than them.

There are no heroes here, only experience. No guilt, just sorrow. No right way to do things besides thinking and wishing to care. And then there is fate, of course.

A (good) way to look at the world.

Beautiful film. I would say even a masterpiece! An excellent acting game,good scenario and cinematography.

Somewhere in the 90s. At the Balkans. The war in Bosnia. A group of aid workers from different countries are trying to help in the middle of a huge after war mess. Trying to do what could be done - in the present case to find a rope, which they could use for taking out corpse from the а well - the only source of fresh water for the local people. During the rope seeking they ran into a bunch of funny or dramatic (mostly both in the same time) situations, but it couldn't be otherwise at the Balkans. ;)

To me "A Perfect Day" is a movie for little things and little actions, which lead to a big change for people.

I highly recommend this movie to all fans to European cinema and to everyone who wants to see something different from all meaningless crap, which flooded us from Hollywood lately.

This film tells the daily lives of several aid workers in an armed conflict zone in the Balkans. They have to extract a corpse from a well, but are faced with multiple logistical and bureaucratic challenges.

"A Perfect Day" may look ridiculous and infuriating from the outside, as it tells a story of ridiculous bureaucracy. So if the common goal is to help the people in a war zone, why are there so many restrictions and hurdles to helping others? Well, my workplace is exactly like that, do I can relate to every single minute of it.

The subplot about the local boy Nikola is touching, as it provides a glimpse of hope for humanity - sometimes real help is from unofficial sources!

It is ironic that war is the biggest industry on the planet. Its wider industrial domain includes warrior politicians, arms manufacturers and military forces. Less acknowledged, it also includes those who perpetually seek amelioration of its consequences like the United Nations and various humanitarian aid agencies. All of those groups regularly star in movies but aid workers get little cinematic glory. It is in this wider context that the Spanish-directed film A Perfect Day (2015) is an unusual and original addition to black comedy war dramas, least of all because the way it avoids typical war movie scenarios and narratives. It covers 'one perfect day' during the military wind-down in the Balkans crisis of mid 1990s and is a refreshing, entertaining and informative insight into the role of aid workers when the big guns go quiet.

The story begins and ends with the image of a big fat corpse in a well, dumped deliberately to pollute village water. In between we see the frantic efforts by a small group of aid workers to find scarce rope that can haul him out, and rope becomes a metaphor to join several unconnected incidents that make up the narrative. There Is no sound of bombs or signs of fighting; we only see a beautiful country full of silent monuments to the devastation of war. Bombed-out ghosts of villages, homeless children, poverty and toxic hygiene are some of an aid worker's challenges and black humour is the universal panacea for coping. On this day, the group must deal with the risk of hidden road mines in cattle carcasses, villager distrust and military animosity towards interfering aid workers, and a United Nations bureaucracy that shows little sensitivity towards dispossessed victims of war. Oh, and find a soccer ball for a young boy.

As with all character-driven films, this one is less about what happens and more about what it is like to be there. The characters built with re-purposed M.A.S.H. traits that are likable, funny and plausible, and the acting is top-class. There are no glory hounds in the group and each has their own coping strengths and emotional foibles. The director orchestrates the characters and sub- stories with perfect tempo to produce a story that is totally engaging if not gripping. You might wonder how a group of loosely disciplined and unaccountable workers can roam freely across a war-ravaged country, or whether the final scene is actually a political statement about their true value. If so, the film has made its mark.

Worth every penny and minute you will spend on it. Just as i was thinking it is impossible to make a good movie without love scenes and explosions , this one came.This movie manages to keep you interested and hooked up without any special trying , its has a simple plot and funny moments there are set very smartly in order to deliver a very nice feeling through all of the movie. Good word to the casting group , the actors very good and well chosen . I also must say that i had no boredom moment through the whole film what so ever , i really was surprised about how well this movie was done without putting in it minimum amount of effort .Its worth mentioning that the movie ,even though it is a little subliminal , is telling a story about a conflict and its told without any extreme was scenes so any audience can watch it.