Treto poluvreme

This movie is one of the best outstanding Macedonian movies ever made in the history of Macedonian cinematography.

The Third Half is filled with lots of painful truths assembled in a beautiful love story continued with soccer events that wake up the spirit inside you. It's amazing that this movie so easily creates the cheering effect and you are cheering all the way.

While watching the movie i smiled so good, I was laughing out loud at certain extremely funny moments and then I cried. After crying I laughed again, I laughed so sweet I loved the taste of those tears. In the end I cried smiling. This movie creates such strong emotional waves that you are not able to resist the urge to go along with them.

We were organized to watch the movie in the USA embassy and I would like to thank all the guys who made this happen.

Amazing work of art! Watch it and you will absolutely love it!

This film has been unfairly criticized in my opinion. Even before the film was released, news articles were turning up with angry Bulgarians complaining about the historical accuracy of the film well before it was even viewable to the public. But the film is not about the Macedonian-Bulgarian problem in foreign relations, it is about the Jewish community in that region, the Holocaust, love between a young man and a young woman, and love for football (soccer).

One of the major strengths of the film is the multiple languages used fluently throughout (English, Ladino, German, Serbian, Bulgarian, Roma and Macedonian,), with some of the actors, especially Rade Serbedzija, doing a good, convincing job in their roles. Although the film stretches a few historical points in order to create a better story, it does depict most of the events of WWII in the Balkans correctly. It depicts the ethnic multiplicity in the region of Macedonia before the war, the local resentment to Yugoslav rule, the Axis invasion, the initial support of the local population to Bulgarian occupation, and the expulsion of the majority of Macedonia's Jews to the death camps at Treblinka.

Some criticisms of the film include its length, and the characters. It tries to depict several years, but without effectively portraying the passing from one time to another, leaving the viewer confused as to when the story is taking place at any certain point. Also, many of the characters have little depth, and seem rather one dimensional (although there are a few characters who the audience learns to empathize with).

Other than these criticisms, it is a great film. Bulgarian nationalists' opinions should not decide whether one should see the film or not. During World War II the Bulgarians saved the Jews of Bulgaria from the Nazi death camps, but in the zones they occupied, they rounded up the Jews and sent them to their deaths on their own, without German help. That is what this movie is about. If the Bulgarians want to portray their efforts in saving Jews, watch a different movie.

it is not easy to understand this film. because , more than a Makedonian story it is a confession from Balkans contemporary history, with deep roots, bitter at whole. at first sigh , it could be discovered as a nationalist film. or only a love story in war period. a film about soccer, about bad and good people, about abuses and about moral victories. in fact is only a subject for reflection. about past and about future. about myths and about reality. about a slice of world who has the force and courage and wise to be itself, again and again. it is a good movie. it is a beautiful one. but, more important, behind the acting, dialogs, images and script itself, it is a way to remember the pain of a land, the experience of people. that fact does " Treto poluvreme" real special. because it is a film of different languages and the same lives. so, see it ! see it without the desire to judge. only with the hope to understand.

The Actors Performance of the leading actors are one of the weakest links in the film. Ivanovska has serious problems in portraying the higher class role that she is assign to here. Kocev sounds more gentlemen-like than her. Ivanovska appearance is attractive but her acting skill are quite low making the love story not to be so good. Kocev compared to Ivanovska looks like a much better actor but he is not great also. However the rest of the cast is much better than the leading couple. Serbedzija is great also the couch Sammel other actors with memorable performance are Apostolski (the club president) and the Bulgarian officer.

The Storyline Is well written does a good job of incorporating many different and parallel story lines and has multiple levels. Give a nice impressions of the "spirit of the time". It is also interesting that all characters speak their native language instead of some artificial "common language" aka English what gives more realism to the film.

The Camera and Photography are good the camera functions very well in dynamic and static mode give nice aspect of the dynamic football game and more static narrative. The photography is bright and positive dispute the sometimes dark narrative. You can fell the warmth of the land and southern summer sun.

The Music and the Sound Are maybe weakest links of film along with the acting of Ivanovska. The music consist of traditional song singed by the protagonists the rest of the music is standard issue Hollywood music clips. The sound is also a bite problematic some of the comments by the football players are hard to hear due to the high background noise.

The Director did a well job in organized this a bite complicated film and hard to tell story. Although he lack sometimes the creativity and goes into well known clichés.

No matter of the review that i'll write for all the viewers of the movie i think that if you are not Macedonian you won't get the point of this movie.The movie have strong behind and a message full of anger and revenge of what they where doing to Macedonia in the past.By revenge i mean that the director want the viewers to see how humiliating was the past for our people and how they apart our land and whit those a lot of families where separated,a lot of love stories where broken,a lot of dreams where gone.That's why i think this movie is something that describe us like a nation a history of people that survived this and now are only memories left for tell. About the actors i think that Sasko did well his role,but Karerina was week in some parts,i guess that's because this was her first movie.The songs in the movie are also very touchable part, and i think that there is no Macedonian who watched the movie and not get thrill all over her/his body.I recommend the movie for all, for me was great.

p.s Sorry if i have some grammar mistakes.