Ljudozder vegetarijanac

The title has no relation to the plot of this Croation film. I would guess that something was lost in the translation.

Anyway, Rene Bitorajac plays Dr. Danko Babic, an arrogant gynecologist who is completely amoral. He manipulates patients records to cover up mistakes, and treats nurses working with him as sex objects. He becomes involved with some shady underworld types who run a strip club which doubles as a whore house. The owner is in need of a medical man to perform abortions on the girls who become pregnant at an alarming rate and Danko becomes his go to guy for the operations. A cautionary note here, as a brief dog fighting scene with Pit Bulls may put some viewers off, as will the frequent and nasty pregnancy termination shots, shown in graphic detail. This is not for the squeamish. Bitorajac is excellent as the evil doctor, surrounded by the mundane and equally corrupt physicians and police officials on the take. At one point, he bribes the pathologist to change his report to clear his obvious responsibility for a patients death; so much for the Hippocratic oath. There is no happy ending, and although it is thoroughly depressing and without any humor at all, I found it to be a realistic portrayal of human nature, with a final message of looking out for number one.

As a doctor, I can tell that Obstetrics is absolutely one of the most "challenging" specialities. This film proves it. It's hard to sit through, but once you do, it feels good idk. The story is well written and it has that sick atmosphere and disturbing throughout the entire runtime. The ending scene was so hard to watch that even my stomach started growling.

Synopsis: Meet Dr. Danko Babic. An up and coming gynecologist with a taste for the finer things in life. Though he is among the most respected in his field, he still keeps friends in low places. Babic likes blow, he likes women, and most of all he likes money. When a local mob boss who is a friend of a friend makes Babic an offer he can't refuse to "take care of" his strippers and hookers, suddenly the good doctor finds himself stumbling into a world from which there is no safe escape.

First of all i am Croatian , but surely i would write shitty review if this Croatian movie would suck big time. Instead i am going to write really nice review of this film which i should write also for Metastaze of the same auteur/director/lead role. For me Rene Bitorajac rocks - BIG TIMES. Sometimes ( remembering American psycho) even more than Christian Bale at his greatest moments in AP.He proved his "Madness " in Metastaze already - thank you for that Rene ! Branko Schmidt did really fine work in both Metastaze and Cannibal/ Vegetarian as well , and he proved he is one of greatest Croatian directors living today. Ivo Balenovic is story for itself.Not only he is highlight for read in newspapers he is writing for , but also his two books of witch those two films are made of are top notch. But , if situation in Croatia would not be exactly as it was shown in those two books/ films the "Punch in the face " wold not be as strong as it is . Knowing the corruptness of Croatian society ,as ,by the way , it is known by every single Croatian citizen , enjoying of this film is a bitter pill , but also a satisfying one , cause all the poison is coming out in this two films - especially in Cannibal-Vegetarian.So government - i know you know - but you have to know that i know it too.

My biggest kudos are going on Rene Bitorajac - Christian Bale should learn from you.

It's all Rene Bitorajac show in a smirking performance as Danko Babic. A ruthless, ambitious and unscrupulous gynecologist who will do anything to get to the top of his profession including accepting bribery from patients and sabotaging other doctors reputation through mischievous methods. He is in bed with corrupt cops and local thugs to falsify medical conditions just for the money. Like the famous Madonna song, Danko is a material guy and he is living in a material world.

But the sh*t is about to hit the fan for the good doctor when the chicken come home to roost in shape of sloppy malpractices and investigation into his conduct by both the clinic and later the police. In particular when he starts performing dangerous abortions on sex workers owned by a dangerous criminal. But does Danka even care about the consequences or feel remorse at all? The answer is left to the viewers to decide.

Paints an unflattering view of Croatian professionals in general. Doctors are depicted as either corrupt or inconsiderate folks worrying more about lawsuits than about the patient. Nurses are portrayed as equal opportunist though it's more of a unrequited love in case of Babic's loyal assistant Lana (talented Natasa Janjic in a thankless role). Disgusting jokes and racial taunts seems to be the norm. The less said about the police the better.

It seems Branko Schmidt (writer/director) is using the character of Danko as some sort of a template…a mirror of Croatian crumbling moral values amid self-serving greed. The nobility of the titular profession is tainted by Danko's employing his abilities as a gynecologist for reprehensible purposes. Unique resolution will divide viewers.

The gory and surgical procedure segments are mostly implied. That actually makes it tougher to watch more so if you're pro-life.

A while ago someone launched a rumour in here the Croatian press that this film was going to be nominated for an Oscar for the best foreign picture. HA HA HA HA HA. Good one! Marketing genius, whoever made that one up.

Well, not only is it not being considered for an Oscar or any kind of prestigious award like that, it should actually be given a Razzie for one of the worst films ever. Luckily for Branko Schmidt, the piece is too obscure to actually get a Razzie. So that's one upside of living in Croatia, eh?

That and maybe the fact that Croatian cinematography isn't renowned for spewing out masterpieces in general, so maybe within the scope of that environment this film even compares as "okay". On a more global scale I don't think it deserves any attention.

In short I would describe it as a very sketchy, shallow piece whose story line lacks development and is poorly narrated through sporadic and thin dialogue between superficial, grotesque characters whose motivation is at best - unclear.

Many mediocre films suffer from lack of idea how to end a story, even if their beginning was promising. Cannibal Vegetarian lands "in medias res" with a chaotic speed-sequence that is supposed to reflect the frantic personality of the main character. Perhaps this style may appeal to younger generations. This form of narration continues throughout the film. Unfortunately the director seemed to be so preoccupied with painting the pathology of the main character's psyche that he forgot to develop any other character, or even give a flow and some direction to the actual story being told. Just when you think the plot is about to culminate, it ends abruptly as if the writer had just given up. You get dragged through 85 minutes of painful, forced interactions between all-bad-guys characters to be given no resolution and no message?

What an unfortunate collision of bad writing and unimaginative directing.