Class and ethnicity in a Croatian apartment house
The Croatian film Ustav Republike Hrvatske (Constitution of the Republic of Croatia) was shown in the U.S. with the title The Constitution (2016). It was co-written and directed by Rajko Grlic.
The movie is about the actions--and interactions--of four Croatians. The situation is complicated for many reasons. One reason is class differences. Vjeko Kralj (Nebojsa Glogovac) is an upper class professor. He lives with his bedridden father Hrvoje Kralj (Bozidar Smiljanic), who was a leading Fascist general.
A working-class couple live in the same apartment building. Maja and Ante Samardzic (Ksenija Marinkovic and Dejan Acimovic) are a nurse and a police officer, respectively.
The situation is also complicated by ethnicity. Maja and Ante are from Serbia. Even though Ante fought for Croatia against the Serbs, the ethnic Croatians dislike them on the basis of their origins. (To this day, many Serbs hate Croatians and many Croatians hate Serbs. You can read about it in Wikipedia.)
Fate throws the four people closer together. Vieko is gay, and a cross-dresser. He is the victim of homophobic violence, and enters a hospital where Maja is a nurse. When he gets home, he can't care for himself, let alone his father. Maja becomes their caretaker. In return, Vieko will tutor Ante on the Croatian Constitution. Every police officer has to be tested on the Constitution, and Ante has dyslexia, so he's having trouble.
How this all works out makes for a fascinating film. It's one of those movies that appear to be going nowhere, when suddenly things begin to click.
We saw this film at Rochester's excellent Little Theatre. It was screened as part of the great ImageOut LGBT Film Festival. This was the movie's New York State premiere. (It's always important when a movie is shown first in Rochester than in New York City.) It will work well on the small screen. Seek it out and watch it!
The movie is about the actions--and interactions--of four Croatians. The situation is complicated for many reasons. One reason is class differences. Vjeko Kralj (Nebojsa Glogovac) is an upper class professor. He lives with his bedridden father Hrvoje Kralj (Bozidar Smiljanic), who was a leading Fascist general.
A working-class couple live in the same apartment building. Maja and Ante Samardzic (Ksenija Marinkovic and Dejan Acimovic) are a nurse and a police officer, respectively.
The situation is also complicated by ethnicity. Maja and Ante are from Serbia. Even though Ante fought for Croatia against the Serbs, the ethnic Croatians dislike them on the basis of their origins. (To this day, many Serbs hate Croatians and many Croatians hate Serbs. You can read about it in Wikipedia.)
Fate throws the four people closer together. Vieko is gay, and a cross-dresser. He is the victim of homophobic violence, and enters a hospital where Maja is a nurse. When he gets home, he can't care for himself, let alone his father. Maja becomes their caretaker. In return, Vieko will tutor Ante on the Croatian Constitution. Every police officer has to be tested on the Constitution, and Ante has dyslexia, so he's having trouble.
How this all works out makes for a fascinating film. It's one of those movies that appear to be going nowhere, when suddenly things begin to click.
We saw this film at Rochester's excellent Little Theatre. It was screened as part of the great ImageOut LGBT Film Festival. This was the movie's New York State premiere. (It's always important when a movie is shown first in Rochester than in New York City.) It will work well on the small screen. Seek it out and watch it!
- Red-125
- Oct 22, 2017