Nacionalna klasa

By far my favorite film. This is what cinema should be, delightful memories. Best Serbian (and former Yugoslav) film.

Some of the greatest YU actors in a very entertaining drama about a twenty-seven-year-old driver, who in all ways tries to evade the army to advance in a racing career. The film depicts typical Balkan family and general human relations in the time of socialism and the delayed puberty of Brana Floyd, whose life is reduced to avoiding any kind of responsibility, while chasing skirts all over Belgrade, in his racing Zastava 750. In my opinion, one of the best roles of Dragan Nikolic.

7,5/10

Despite the somewhat lame plot this has aged rather well - mostly due to good all round performances from some of the usual acting suspects of Serbian cinema, who were in this instance given credible dialogues to work with and were backed by a steady and competent direction by Goran Markovic. The film also takes a fab and unique snapshot of the city of Belgrade in the late seventies, when life and times suddenly became more affluent and marginally less constrained by the country politics. Fuelled by a feel good disco soundtrack (which helped launch the careers of the likes of Aleksandra Sladjana Milosevic and Oliver Mandic amongst others), the movie introduces (albeit diffidently) what is probably the first gay character in Serbian cinema, and delivers a heartfelt homage to a little car with a big soul that tends to break down a bit too often - the famous Fiat/Zastava 750, at the time the most popular car in the country - and the most affordable. An hour and a half of very enjoyable local movie nostalgia depicting some altogether more innocent times. And you can also boogie to the tunes.

Being from Macedonia, a former Yugoslavian republic, I know that my perspective on this movie (and on the entire Yugoslavian cinematography )is slightly different from the perspective of a viewer that doesn't come from this part of the world. The environment in which the movie is located, the same environment that produced the director, the actors and the movie itself is very familiar to me.Perhaps that means that my views on this movie are biased, one sided and influenced by local traditions in film-making and life traditions in general.Nevertheless,in the next few lines I will express those views, because I really want to share with you, my friends, the pleasure that this movie brought to me. One more thing - people that don't speak Serbian can not experience the full flavor of the movie, for there is no translator that can transform the real meanings of some lines in the movie in any other languages. The movie itself is a bitter - sweet story of a free spirit a man can possess no matter how the society can try to put chains on him. Or vice-versa? How the society can put chains on a man , no matter how free spirited he is? Indeed, this idea of the authors is realized in a form of a brilliant con-texture of hilarious comical( satirical)scenes that honestly will make you roll on the flour laughing. There are characters in this movie that deserve to have special movies dedicated to them (as leads)- and I especially mean MILE- played by Gordan Diklic- a character that I would recommend to Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Jim Carrey to gather one evening and watch and learn from. If there is a national cinematography that can paint humor on a movie screen while telling a sad or perhaps a tragic story( and this comes from a fan of the British black humor )it is the former Yugoslavian one.The strong artistic essence of the movie comes from the power of the entire crew did NOT CARE IF THE MOVIE WOULD BE A SUCCESS, meaning they did their job because they loved what they were doing.I guess that means that people in this part of the world and in this period of time had HEARTS, my friends, and I mean hearts the size of a mountain.The positive spirit is in the air all along the "ride" , even though we all know how the "ride" finished. Mixed emotions does indeed this film bring, but I guess we , the people of the Balkan, can laugh and cry at the same time. And it is not a easy thing to do, my friends. Watch the movie, experience one rich culture , one way of life that is so vivid in this movie. It can touch your soul.Really.

So much fun... A simple story, with great characters and fine screen writing, as well as acting. And an unforgettable soundtrack. An unpretentious little film that does everything right. I am not surprised people love it.