L'été dans la vallée d'or

"Ljeto u zlatnoj dolini" or 'Summer in the Golden Valley' as it is called in English is a very dark and grim movie. It certainly isn't a feel-good movie, but the story that it tells feels very authentic and realistic.

It's about a teenage boy Fikret, who lives in post-war Sarajevo, where drugs, crime and corruption are the most important parts of life. He sniffs glue to escape from reality and all he really wants is to step on one of the airplanes that fly over the city, so he can fly away to a better world. His family has a hard time making a living and his father has just died. A man comes to the funeral and says that the father owed him a lot of money and that he wants it back. Because they don't have any money, the son will have to do some crimes... Than a corrupt cop asks him to help with the kidnapping of a girl, the daughter of some very rich people. If he and a friend hide the girl and take care of her, they will receive a lot of money. At first all they want is the money, but gradually Fikret falls in love with her...

As I already said, this story will not really make you feel good, but that certainly doesn't mean this isn't a good movie. OK, it isn't really a masterpiece, but the actors did a fine job, the story is very good and believable and the way everything was shot is more than just OK. This movie is really something for you when you are interested in very realistic and far from corny dramas. Also when you are interested in how life in the Balkan now is, this may be the movie for you to watch. Personally I liked what I saw and I give it a 7.5/10

This movie is brilliant.I've never watched a movie which has so much black humour.The story and the behavior of each character in this movie is realistic.I know it, I live'd there.Now i come to the story:

Fikret Varupa would be a totally ordinary sixteen year old boy from Sarajevo had it not been for an incredible stroke of bad luck. At the traditional Muslim funeral service for his father, he learns that his father owes money to Hamid, a man he does not even know. The debt is considerable and Hamid does not want it to go to the grave with the body, so the debt automatically passes from the father to the son. Since in Bosnia this way of collecting debts, at a funeral, is considered to be utterly humiliating, it is never, ever applied. Fikret and his entire family become subjects of ridicule. Fikret, who is practically still a child, is decisive to "redeem his father's soul". Wishing to repay his father's debt and to secure the forgiveness, Fikret wanders into the real world of Sarajevo, the world that is ruled by post-war chaos, misery and poverty and becomes an ideal target for two corrupted policemen who wish to "help" him: they plant the kidnapped girl on him.

This movie everybody have to watch.I love it

I read other reviews on this film, I saw that people liked this film, but for some reason I did not.

First of all, I think that plot is not that realistic even for Sarajevo of those times. These things do not really happen in a small city like Sarajevo for a long period of time. I think that such a plot would of been foiled within a half of a day in Sarajevo.

Acting is very good, most of these actors are actors with many awards from various film festivals, and I think if Bosnia was the USA they would be very popular actors with many Hollywood roles.

Directing is excellent and it resembles action films made with a high budget. I hope that director Vuletic gets opportunity to direct in the future.

This film is the best piece of cinema I have had the pleasure of seeing in a very, very long time, period. I enjoyed every minute of it! Yes, it beats the hell out of No Man's Land, my fellow reviewer! It's powerful, eloquent, entertaining and with a great sense of humor. Together with Rane and Normalni Ljudi (two Serbian equivalents), it shows amazing vitality of the people living in the Balkans. The strength to make laugh at its own expense and its stupidity that caused fratricidal carnage of the 90's. It is a true art at its best.

The very fact that films of such quality are consistently coming out of this "backward region" are the best sign that all is not lost, just yet.

I think this is a great movie. I watched it for the second time the other day and I liked it even better than before. I like the ability of the director to mix different genres very smoothly. The film starts as a social drama than turns into triller turns into love store and in the end turns into great action film. All that with great dose of humor. This is maybe the only Bosnian contemporary film that deals with present times, real people with real problems. And when it comes to depicting the reality of our society this film is literary unmatched. The actors are fine, cinematography is great, and fx scenes - yes, there are some scenes with fx in Bosnian movie - are fantastic. The only problem I have with the film is rhythm as from time to time from very fast scenes we go directly to very slow scenes and somewhere it doesn't work quite well. But, in the end, I hearty recommend it.