Varuh meje

Varuh meje (2002), shown here as "Guardian of the Frontier" is an unsettling film. Three young female college students take what is supposed to be a relaxing canoe trip down a scenic river in Slovenia.This is not a nature movie, so we know things will go wrong, and things definitely go very wrong.

Ultimately, the students find themselves in a small, rural village, which appears eminently safe. At that point, the film reminded me of Southern Comfort (1981). In Southern Comfort, urban soldiers of the Louisiana National Guard are lost in a swamp, attacked by local inhabitants, and then enter a village of "good Cajuns" who may or may not be what they seem.

The tension in both films derives from the reaction of people who, while extremely competent in their own environment, find themselves in an environment where new skills are needed if they are to survive.

"Guardian of the Frontier" provides some lovely footage of Slovenian scenery, and some unexpected themes–-the artificiality

of the separation between two tiny countries--Slovenia and

Croatia--xenophobia, and rural/urban prejudices.

This is certainly not a must-see movie. On the other hand, how often do we get a chance to see any Slovenian movie in Upstate New York? "Guardian of the Frontier" is worth seeing near

home or on VHS or DVD. It's not a film for which it's worth a special trip to Slovenia to view without subtitles.

One has to suspect that misadventure will occur when three college girls plan a trip down the river dividing Slovenia and Croatia. After all, the paper reports a similar girl missing from a trip from friends. Is there something lurking in the woods?

The trip down the river was a sight to behold. The scenery was absolutely beautiful - that included two of the girls who decided to get more of a tan! Yes, the wildlife on the river is spectacular to watch; as is the wildlife going down the river, but who is that man that keeps popping up?

The politics of Slovenia and Croatia, and the contrasting values of city folk and country folk keep recurring through the movie. Right-wing speeches made it seem like a Republican convention.

It went into a fantasy after that and it is left up to the viewer to determine what happened, but it certainly challenges the imagination and beliefs.

Three young college women, Simona (Iva Krajnc), Alja (Tanja Potocnik), and Zana (Pia Zemljic), go on an adventure canoing down the River Kolpa, dividing their Slovenia from neighboring Croatia, in this 2002 Slovenian film by Maya Weiss. What could have been an Eastern European version of the well-known and exciting 1972 "Deliverance" turned out, for me, to be utterly uninspiring with flat character portrayals that denied sympathetic identification with the characters.

Alja and Zana are not convincing as students at all, though Alja expresses a desire to be a writer, and both use what seemed to me to be excessive bad language. Alja is bored with her boyfriend and seems to just be drifting along in life. Zana, even less scholarly, is a self-absorbed adventure seeker with an attraction to other women. I had some sympathy with relatively innocent Simona, conservative and starry eyed. The very idea of these three traveling together just doesn't work for me. The disdain that Zana and Alja show toward Simona makes no sense - why would they choose her as a travel companion to start with as surely they must know her demeanor and attitudes?

The three begin a carefree journey down the river on two canoes, undeterred by a news story of a woman's disappearance along the river. Things become more somber with the mysterious appearance, sometimes real and sometimes possibly hallucinatory, of a rabidly conservative fisherman politician (Jonas Znidarsic).

I did enjoy the scenes along the river and of small villages the trio visit. It may be because of a lack of cultural understanding, but the film didn't move me otherwise. I was surprised to see that the film has won some awards.

Three `big city' college beauties use their summer vacation to go on a backwoods canoe trip down the Kolpa river which divides off limits Croatia from Slovenia. Overtly ominous background music and `Peeping Tom' camera angles warn us of the wild dangers this world has to offer. Yet what appears at first to be a Slovinian `Blair Witch Project' develops instead into a slightly murky exploration of political, cultural and religious constraints. Fearless lesbian, Zana, is looking for love and acceptance and tries to get it from her friend Alja. Simona wants to be seduced and begins to imagine the local xenophobic traditionalist as her Prince Charming. Alja seeks independence from her cloying boyfriend, overbearing father, judgmental roommate Simona and now her new lover Zana. In addition to confronting their own demons on the journey the girls are confronted with homophobia, racism, nationalism, traditionalism, sexism and terrorism. Unfortunately much of the film's impact gets lost towards the end as it oscillates too wildly between fantasy and reality. This film does however provide high production values, fine acting, an intriguing concept, sophisticated humor, gorgeous locals and a delightful Slovenian pop soundtrack.

Half a mystical thriller and half the fractured fantasies of a fragile mind, "Guardian of the Frontier" is an engaging trip that soon derails. Strong imagery and a compelling premise is soon overwhelmed by incoherent plotting, hackneyed dialogue, amateurish acting, and the most outlandish and over-the-top phallic imagery in recent memory (here, a fish is most definitely not just a fish!). Evidently, this is the first Slovenian feature film to be directed by a woman -- Ms. Weiss must have been determined to prove that she could be as lurid and gratuitously explicit as any man.