Bal na vodi

My personal feeling is that you cannot divorce this movie from its political/historical underpinnings like so many (American) reviewers tend to do. This is not about growing up on Main Street, USA. It is about growing up in Yugoslavia at a time when it was torn between the East and the West. Just like the guys are torn between Esther and everybody else, and Esther is torn between the "Tovarish Joe" and the guys. There is shame in certain situations that is lost on an audience that has never lived under Tito. I feel the movie is under-rated and it is too bad we have lost the director. Movies like this make freedom feel more important. It is not just "another Eastern European coming of age film"...it is a sensitive portrayal of teenagers walking a fine line that might eventually lead them to real freedom.

Four old friends are reunited in their native Yugoslavia at the funeral of their childhood companion, a once vivacious young girl they each secretly adored and together helped escape to the West. Now middle aged and melancholy, and confronted again by the unresolved mysteries of their past, they recall the events that drew them together and cast them apart so many years earlier. The story is at once both romantic and perceptive, showing the personal and political traumas of growing up in the Balkans during the 1950s, but with a bittersweet glow of nostalgia underlining the end of innocence for characters and country alike. The understated grace of the film is perhaps best revealed at the moment when the young heroine is seduced by an unscrupulous Communist Party member (a rival of her four friends), whose twin tattoos of Stalin and Lenin appear to caress her flesh, striking just one of the many grace notes in an altogether memorable drama.

I was intrigued by the title, so during a small bout of insomnia (fueled by my curiosity...), I stayed up and watched it. I then checked my TV listings and watched it again! There is one very obvious realization that occurred to me when I saw this film- in spite of politics, traditions, culture, etc., teenagers everywhere are virtually the same. The characters of the kids from Belgrade could have been transported to, let's say, somewhere in the American Midwest during the same time period, and language differences aside, would be impossible to tell apart from any of the local teens of that era. They certainly displayed the same growing pains and preoccupations, politics aside: Music, sex, movie idols, music, drinking, sports, music... As a matter of fact, much the same things that occupied my time growing up in 1970's Southern California.

This was a bittersweet story, but the joy of youth made it very enjoyable. The characters, especially the young actors, were completely believable also. I won't say this was the Yugoslav "American Graffiti", but I will say that it fits in nicely with other 50's-themed movies.

This coming of age movie is significantly more than just that; it is a metaphor for Yugoslav expatriates who left their beloved country after it was cleverly and tragically tricked by the false pretenses of the communists.

A very well made film set in early '60s communist Yugoslavia. The five young actors who are the teenagers at the center of the story give strong, sincere and emotionally deep performances. A clear depiction of how the natural trust and naivete inherent in teens can be easily manipulated and how that impacted the rest of their lives. Highly recommended.