Profesionalac

It's interesting to mention that the movie excellently fits the life-story of the main actor - Branislav Lecic (Teja in Movie).

The documentary clips in the movie are genuine. He was the leader of the student protests at the darkest time of Miloshevich (1991-1992) and at the time of making the movie, the Serbian Minister of Culture. Was he really surveyed by the "proffesionals" I don't know, but knowing the situation, probably yes.

Anyway the movie is great, and true. I have been living in Belgrade the whole time and can legitimately confirm the facts that are presented in movie are truth and nothing but the truth.

I simply enjoyed this movie! There was never a dull moment. The plot was very fresh, interesting, and original. There was on-going laughter throughout the movie, I loved it! I could watch it over and over again.

The film is a disappointment, especially considering it's based on a far superior theater play. While the play focuses on the eponymous 'professional', and makes us care about that character, while exploring it in depth, the film makes the relationship between the professional and his 'target' its focus, which doesn't work at all. The screenplay for the film comes across as amateurish and confused. It becomes a series of weird encounters and gags, but has no substance. Also, it is tonally confusing and outright nonsensical. It provides no emotional payoff, and on top of that, the casting is not particularly good. If you want to see this, watch the theater play.

Dusan Kovacevic is author of the best screenplays in Serbian cinematography. He wrote one of the most hilarious movies ever- The Marathon Family (Maratonci trce pocasni krug, 1982) and much more. When he decided to write and direct "The Professional", placed in Serbia after the 1999's October revolution, i was a bit skeptic, thinking of this movie as of another war/love stories from Serbia's underground, violent and hard to watch (that's the best description of 80% newer Serbian movies). God, i was wrong.

Teja is the president of one of the state's companies- a newspaper. He is typical represent of the new democratic Serbia's government: lucid, educated, intelligent. He is going through a hard period in life, and the situation in his company is going worse and worse. The first 15 minutes are another successful Kovacevic's attempt to make fun of audience. Setting the start of the movie in Teja's office, focusing on daily politics, makes you think that all this movie is going to be another of the domestic trash movies you could see in past years (with a few honorable exceptions). When a strange old man in coat steps into the office, everything turns upside-down. Not taking off his coat or hat, just putting two large suitcases on the floor, Luka starts talking to Teja who soon realises that in front of him stands extremely educated man who claims to be a policeman.

One thing about Luka starts to be strange to Teja- the man he sees the first time in his life seems to know too much about him. When he asks Luka about the content of the books, old man tells him that every page of the books is about Teja. Other suitcase is full of his lost things. Luka has been following Teja for decades, writing down his every single move. Luka seems to know more about Teja's life than Teja himself. They together remember the most interesting details of their lives collecting the pieces of this movie's puzzle.

Thinking of a movie most similar to The Professional, i stopped at Burton's "Big Fish". Both movies are based on collection of flashback stories. Flashbacks in Kovacevic's movie are less fictional, but not less interesting, making you laugh at start, and cry at the end of the movie. It is impressive how a good scenario can make a low-budget movie so interesting. Professional will surely wake up emotional side of you and make you think of it a long after it is finished. A special credit goes to a beautiful soundtrack by Momcilo Bajagic. This is one of the foreign movies that should easily have blockbuster Hollywood remakes.

Profesionalac (The Professional), submitted by Serbia for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2003, features a truly remarkable story, dealing with recent, but dramatic events in Serbia/Yugoslavia. Adapted from directors' own play, Profesionalac is one of those rare Serbian movies that can actually be understandable to foreign crowd, painting a dark, yet still optimistic portrait of turbulent Serbia of the 1990's.

Through the story of Theodore (Teja) Kraj, former writer and opponent to Milosevics regime(actor Lecic was in fact a passionate opponent to the regime at the time, so his footage on some of the documentaries seen in movie is authentic!), now days a publisher company manager, and a retired Secret Service (infamous DB) agent Luka Laban, who was on Teja's case for a decade, we learn about two major epochs in modern Serbian history.

First being the repeated attempts throughout the 1990's, by impoverished nation, drawn to a civil war in Croatia and Bosnia, exhausted by dictatorship, NATO bombing, violence and censorship...to bring down the communist/nationalist dictator Slobodan Milosevic and his cataclysmic regime. Attempts that led to eventual civil uprising were spearheaded by intellectual elite and younger generations, mostly students...Teja was a university professor, in touch with both groups(both professionally and personally). As such, he was targeted by Milosevic's puppets (ideologist, hardcore communist Laban), who, apart from ''being a professional'', had a grudge on Teja of his own.

Second one being the post Milosevic's era (brought down in 2001.) of transition and privatization, wave of closing down factories and firms, workers loosing jobs...shown in the movie through the present strike of the dissatisfied workers/possibly even supporters of the former regime (which was indeed supported mostly by older people / communists, rural population and poorly educated, lowest working class). That problem actually marked that entire period of Serbia's awakening in the 2000's.

Hovewer, despite the magnificent plot, beautifully put together through the numerous flashbacks in which puzzle is finally being put together (by Teja) when he learns the background of all his grievances in the past decade, the strongest point of this movie is an emotion.

Emotion you have to share with a generation whose youth/prime was spent in fighting with a regime, whose lives were ruined by hell-bent police officers and agents, and who sacrificed all of that, voluntarily, so those to come could live free ''...kids? Your kids are exactly why I am doing all of this...'' - Teja.

Emotion so beautifully brought to us by a superb soundtrack. Melancholic bohemian Serb mandolin, mixed with actual documentary footage, leaves a participant of the events, like myself, in tears, and others, hopefully moved.

Somewhat tragic, melancholic, but also hilarious at times, The Professional is one of those European movies you should see even if you aren't Serb...especially if you aren't Serb.