Krugovi

In a war-infested country, behind the lines, a soldier on leave interferes to save the life of an innocent man from another ethnic group, being beaten by his fellow soldiers. He ends up being beaten to death instead.

20 years after the war, one finds himself thinking about who were the true war heroes. An utterly pointless act, to risk your own life in a havoc in which a human life is wasted in the blink of an eye, for someone you barely know, is something one can see only on screen. In reality, most of us are those who watch, who witness, but dare not interfere.

One man did interfere, and lost his life, seemingly pointlessly. The only child of a widowed father, with a fiancée whose life would become a sad and tragic story of a drifter afterwards, and the gang of murderers sentenced to ridiculously short sentences. Was it worth it, are good deeds worth it in general? There's an ironic English proverb saying that no good deed goes unpunished. But the story tells that even a rock thrown in water makes circles that grow and spread. In this case, circles of compassion that go through space and time and inspire many. Circles that help us find inner courage to stand up to injustice, that help us find the compassion to restrain us in revenge upon the innocent.

This film was inspired by a true story. The story of Srđan Aleksić, a Serbian soldier on leave who was beaten to death in 1993 by his fellow men, while trying to save Alen Glavović, an innocent Muslim civilian, who was being beaten before him. Out of the four rascals, only one expressed regret in the court. Ironically, he was the only one to meet death shortly, within a couple of months, shot on the front line, where all four were sentenced to. Srđan's father wrote in his son's obituary "He died fulfilling his human duty".

The circles that the rock of Srđan's deed made are those which eventually made him the only war-hero respected and cared for on all the opposed sides. What strikes me most were Christ's words that "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." Those circles keep showing us that such deeds of the greatest love are possible and were made by a man who had lived among us, and who never lived to see his family growing and his children being born, unlike us, the silent witnesses, who take so much pride in love we feel and share.

The names are altered and the rest of the story is entirely fictional. Being a person from the region, there was little in the film for me not to be fully understood and grasped. Therefore, I am somewhat reluctant to recommend it to worldwide audience, fearing if its universal message would break through the local context it took place in. But I do. Here is an excellent, slow and heavy Serbian drama with little action, much dialogue and fine acting, telling us the aftermath of a well known story, and circles of compassion, forgiveness, courage and inner purification.

R.I.P. Srđan Aleksić 1966 — 1993

Even if it does not entertain you, Krugovi is certainly a movie that makes you think (about life in general, but also about Balkan history in particular). In troubled situations and extreme conditions, the ugliest and the most beautiful shades of the human soul reveal together. The tricky thing is that they seem to appear inter-connected, so a terrible bad might be the reason and the circumstance of some extraordinary good. The movie is inspiring, it is about hope in humanity, about people who act as human beings, even in that moments where the animal instinct reigns over the world. Souls talk, people not too much. There are rough characters, that create strong ties based on common memories. In spite of all, they seem to have an inner need to do the right thing. All the stories from this movie start from the same point, Marko a soldier in the Bosnian War is beaten to death because he was trying to defend a Muslim from harassment and possible death. Few years later, the characters of that scene arrive to deal again with each other.

Circles, aka Krugovi, is based on the true story of a Serbian soldier who was killed defending a Muslim civilian from other soldiers while he was off-duty. The results of this event are fictional but that kernel of truth grounds this film in a firm realty. The majority of this film takes place a decade after the Serbian-Bonsian conflict is over but its effects are present throughout.

What makes this film great and sets it apart from a straight-forward narrative is the way it skillfully withholds information and only reveals small details of what happened and the history that has ensued. This keeps the audiences rapt attention and makes it much more tense than it should be because we don't know how the characters are going to react because we don't fully know what happened. The characters don't go off on a lengthy moralistic speech or expository dialogue. The communication is much more realistic in that they don't say what they are thinking and they hide information from each other – much like real life.

The cinematography is great, from the millennia old desert and old way of life to the inside of the BMW plant which looks futuristic; this is a film with skillful hands behind the camera. Really, this film should not be as great as it is, but the constant intrigue and slow unraveling of the mystery make this an entertaining and emotional ride. The actors too are compelling and well casted in their roles; this film would not work on any level without their excellent performances. The actor who plays the mobster-father (the IMDb credits are incomplete), even though his role is fairly small in comparison, should be the villain in every movie, he just exudes fury and hate. (He looks like an evil Michael Sheen – which is actually Andy Sirkis so maybe he looks like an evil Andy Sirkis?)

From the title of this film, I assumed this would be about the circular nature of violence but in fact this can be taken two ways, it's more about the circular nature of kindness and good, and a more-accurate title would be "ripple" or the ripple-effects of a singular kind-act.

Krugovi (Circles) explores the consequences of civil war in former Yugoslavia, which is still a very sensitive subject in the area. The discussion surrounding such a movie usually overshadows its message. Due to the complex nature of the conflict and numerous parties involved, movies about this particular civil war tend to paint a simplified picture and imply how one of the sides were "more guilty". This might not be interesting or even anticipated by an unacquainted viewer, yet it takes a toll on the artistic merit of the movie. Angelina Jolie's In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011) is probably the best example.

The authors of Krugovi (Circles) overcame this challenge by a script in which the main protagonists are mostly Serbs. A group of Serbian soldiers kicks off the storyline and their actions would influence their lives and the lives of the people around them even twelve years later.

Probably the best thing about this movie is its atmosphere. The grinding sadness almost pours from the screen. However, this is not a tragedy, rather a story about common people whose small deeds might make the world a better place although they won't right the wrongs of the past.

Krugovi (Circles) is so far the best feature film by the Srdan Golubovic. According to IMDb.com he directed only three feature films, yet he displayed an amazing ability to improve his output throughout his career. This one set the bar pretty high and it is with great expectation that i await his next movie.

If this film were a state of mind, it would be that sense of comprehension before inhaling your last breath. If this film were an emotion, it would be the weeping of an abandoned child. If this film were a person, it would be one reeling due to great loss. Still, it is all of these, and more – it is about liberation. The camera-work takes us around in circles - the clear Hercegovan sky, the clinical void of a Belgrade hospital, the barrenness of western capitalism. We are reminded that life gives no more than what is put in. But also, this film is about balance, about loss of son and gain of father, about deliverance through goodness and imprisonment through evil, and about setting things right in order to be able to take in air again. Could it be that this work of art is finally (after 20 years, from 1993-2013) giving us a chance to atone for endorsing fratricide, if by nothing but by conceding to it? Serbs must exonerate themselves to be able to resume living in the homeland. As for us Yugoslavs, perhaps can finally exit the circle of remorse for the demise of our land and find some redemption and peace of mind.