Lugar Santo

Very interesting to me, to see a film like Sveto Mesto made in 1990. My first experience of Balkan cinema (Yugoslavian to be precise), but most notably to me coming out at such a time, best known for the demise of the classic slasher era and the descent of B horror into its decade odd length slumber. With its measured pace, traditional story and lack of gore or even any blood, Sveto Mesto could almost be a relic held in amber, golden view to the thoughts and fears of a whole different generation of cinema. It is this in a way, but fortunately more too, not just some quaint throwback but a surprisingly barbed affair and as such rather intriguing. Its based on a tale by Gogol of a priest (here named Toma) in training who is summoned by a local landowner to fulfil his daughter Katarina's dying wish. As is customary, he is to wait over her body for three nights prayer, and as one might expect things do not go according to plan. Reluctant from the outset, the hero's fears are increased by various strange tales and dark revelations, and things become very troublesome indeed. It all seems like pretty standard stuff and in many ways it is, there's demonstration of the power of the lords prayer, foggy night time chills, superstition, class division and the expected boos. But Katarina, the focus of the piece is treated in a far less coy, far more modern fashion than she might have been in a film from another generation. She is a strong, confident and beautiful woman who transgresses not just class divisions but sexual mores and does so for no higher purpose than pleasure, in short beyond the notion of her as a supernatural presence she embodies the misogynistic fears of the era and its notion of witches. An interesting character then, covering the spectrum from small minded fear to genuine menace and finely essayed by the striking Branka Pujic, disarmingly sensual, compelling like the caress of a blade. She doesn't have a great deal of screen time but does great with it and happily everyone else does well in framing her performance. Dragan Jonavic is decent as Toma, grappling with fear and duty as he is drawn beyond his limits, Aleksandar Bercek makes for a good creepy local elite and various rustic types give the right mixture of stoicism and unease. There's good atmosphere throughout and some interesting jolts, but the structure is a little too conventional and the fearful scenes often a little too low key in presentation for the film to really leap out, especially the slightly fudged finale, but nonetheless its decent viewing and well worth a watch for anyone interested in period spooky tales or Eastern European horror.

There are not that many horror movies from Balkan(ex yu)so this one is little gem... From the creator of the movie ..she butterfly'' comes this horror... It's based of Gogol's short story ,,viy'' but just with the set on different place... The movie has a dark tone and soundtrack that could been a better, but hey imagery may draw you back from watching this... This is example of a horror that is done without blood and its scary it mixes a folklore witch,demon and dark stories in one move its just great... Every thing that you have to expect here is Dark and it combines everything fine! It works and it is interesting to watch! Great tone,fitting imagery and OK soundtrack makes this film good!!! High recommendation!

Almost two decades after the cult "Leptirica", Djordje Kadijevic brings us another, now also a cult horror film, based on the short story "Viy" by Nikolai Gogol. In relation to the source material, "A Holy Place" follows the basic flow of the story, but while, perhaps due to the budget being too low for special effects, it omits the multitude of supernatural beings that the story abounds in, on the other hand, it expands its erotic elements and deepens the characters by inserting, in the original non-existent, flashbacks from their past. As a result, we got an excellent script, which is the strongest asset of this production. Everything else is at a much lower level.

The production gives the impression of a film at least a decade older than it actually is, and could perhaps fit somewhere in the seventies. The general atmosphere and visual experience for most of the film leave the impression of comedy rather than horror. Maybe it should have been. Comedy is something that fits both Serbian mentality and our authors, and if you look back at the best achievements of Serbian cinematography, I think you will agree that most of them are comedies, followed by dramas. Horror is not our forte. This impression is additionally contributed by Dragan Jovanovic in the leading role. Let's face it, he's a great stage actor and comedian, and I love him a lot, but for this movie, he's totally wrong and completely kills any chance of establishing a creepy atmosphere.

The rest of the cast is quite good, the music neither stinks nor smells, I can't decide whether are the motifs directly taken from "Leptirica" plus or minus,... All in all, a solid film worth seeing, but don't let the status of best Serbian horror get your hopes up too much, because it didn't deserve it by being a masterpiece, but by its lackluster competition ("Variola vera", "Serbian film" and "TT Syndrome" prevent me from using the term non-existent).

7,5/10 (this 0.5 just to raise it above "Leptirica")

It is one of the best Balkan horror movies , really scary . Story about young Serbian monk . He must singing ope-lo 3 nights in small village church , In church is a death young woman Katrine (she was dyed mystery).Young monk every day listen scary stories about Katrine , and at night he goes to church to singing ope-lo at night. Whats happenings in church i don't tell...

Its very hard to find this movie , in Serbian only in VHS format (videotape) but a have some Dix (VHS rip).This movie someone must work up to DVD format (i think at Croatian JADRANFILM) because movie is a fantastic!

I've not seen much of the Yugoslav cinema and I'm not such deep in to that. But this movie encourages me to try more, certainly in the horror genre. It belongs to the more defined and Gothic genre of horror which unfortunately isn't that much justified in the Hollywood.

Its always a good experience to watch the visual performance of some piece of literature, and its better when the general atmosphere of the movie retains the depth or at least the mood defined by the author.Though this isn't the literary adaptation, it definitely has some real creepy scary moments. There is definitely a dark side to erotics and its done good here. The character Katrina seems fitting in the Gothic erotic. A good pick for the fans of Gothic horror.