Kod amidze Idriza

I saw this movie two weeks ago and was very impressed. I believe that, no matter how great translation English speaking viewers get, they will still be lacking the profound message the movie sends. It certainly caught every single detail of a Bosnian house and family along with relationship between husband and wife, love for grandchildren and inevitable involvement of neighbors into everybody's life. Even though it certainly contains comic elements, it also brought tears to my eyes several times. 'Amidza' and 'amidzinca' reminded me of my late grandparents and all the attention I was getting in their house. All credits to Sasa Losic for music and soundtrack. Well done!

How to describe this movie without writing "it is a wonderful movie" million times is a heavy task. Namik Kabil, one of more active screenwriters in the Balkan wrote a fantastic screenplay about a normal life in a shadow of a lingering death, which was converted into the fantastic movie by promising director Pjer Zalica and a fantastic crew of actors and tech. IndieWIRE had it right when they said this was one of the best 15 undistributed movies in the 2004. In my opinion it was the best movie in 2004, much better than LOTR:Return of the King, who cleaned up Oscars for that year, and far, far better than Les Invasions Barbares, which won the best foreign film Oscar.

If I said this film is about Fuke (Senad Basic) visiting his elderly uncle and aunt Idriz (Mustafa Nadarevic) and Sabira (Semka Sokolovic Bertok), to fix their broken water-heater, you would think this must be the most boring movie ever, but it is far from it. It is as dreamy as early Italian new wave, but with the fragrance of Iranian films all brought together in this fantastic movie about feelings, and not action. The movie will make you think about the feelings projected without a word said. This is not sex-filled-bomb-blasted-car-chasing kind of film. This is a film about the rhythm of the life. It allows you to float into the steady current of their quiet lives and be touched by the love they have for each other. Wonderful movie, one of the best I have seen in my life.

I watched it more than 3 times and every time I find another little detail that is so amazingly interwoven in this story. It may look like another story about the war but I actually liked it since it captures the essence of relationships within family and with neighbors.

Although some of the characters are stereotypical but they still didn't cease to exist in reality such as for instance the one played by the legendary Nada Djurevska. We all have one of those neighbors who just cannot resist knowing everything and sticking their nose in where is not wanted.

Also the character of aunt and her way of cleaning to avoid contemplating the life and losing her son are so realistic. One of the best actors Mustafa Nadarevic in the region brought the character of uncle Idriz to life in an outstanding way and it was not surprising. Many little arguments between aunt and uncle made me nostalgic and laugh at the same time since they depict the nature of old generation marriages. She reminded me of my late grandmother.

I recommend this movie to anybody who would like to understand the part of Bosnian culture but also the dynamics within one family and neighborhood (in Bosnian 'mahala').

I am only gonna say what is good and what is bad. Good is presence of Bosnian culture, superstitions, environment, and reality. Meaning, it shows what it really is like in Bosnia. All I can relate to my real life in Bosnia. Especially with older generation. It is emotional, magical, deep, but simple. Bad is that unfortunately things are changing, so this movie is becoming less and less interesting because culture is changing, and becoming less relevant for future generations. Only older people will like this movie. And bad is lack of some real deeper action such as war, mystery, crime. Meaning, too subjective, personal, social. This would deserve at least 1 star better rating 10 years ago as it was more relevant then. Bit worse than Perfect Circle movie, because not as deep as warn and talk dominates. Bit funny and I could recognize specific food, habits, talk from real life from same places.