Nacionalna klasa

"National Class" is about a guy whose auto-racing career is much more important to him than any other life issue. The movie follows his attempts to avoid both the army and marriage in a matter of week, eventually failing in both. He usually drives around in his Zastava 750, sits at caffe's and takes no significant responsibilities. With a synopsis like this, the first film that comes to my mind is "Once Upon a Time There Was a Singing Blackbird", but this has much more comic input than Iosseliani's movie. Goran Markovic's masterpiece is one of the most beloved Serbian films of all time. It's more than a successful comedy. The highest points are magnificent and clever dialogue, as well as the elaboration and variety of characters, one funnier after another. If you're looking for an empty eye-candy that is likely to win any of the festival nowadays, skip this.

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.

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.

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.

A racer and his broken car, his no-good mechanic, his pregnant girlfriend, his gay friends, his assistant in double-crossing the military officials, are the basic ingredients of this sparkling comedy. There is also a variety of supporting characters, ranging from owner of Chech car who is prosecuting our hero on account of the car accident, to high politician who should fix a purchase of an expensive racing car as a wedding gift to the racer and his girlfriend who is politician`s daughter. Meanwhile, racer has to manage to avoid recruiting, since he can`t stand the army, and the wedding, since he can`t stand the marriage. Overall, one fine comedy with inevitable race in the end, which can win or lose everything for our hero.