Third half

This movie is one of the best outstanding Macedonian movies ever made in the history of Macedonian cinematography.

The Third Half is filled with lots of painful truths assembled in a beautiful love story continued with soccer events that wake up the spirit inside you. It's amazing that this movie so easily creates the cheering effect and you are cheering all the way.

While watching the movie i smiled so good, I was laughing out loud at certain extremely funny moments and then I cried. After crying I laughed again, I laughed so sweet I loved the taste of those tears. In the end I cried smiling. This movie creates such strong emotional waves that you are not able to resist the urge to go along with them.

We were organized to watch the movie in the USA embassy and I would like to thank all the guys who made this happen.

Amazing work of art! Watch it and you will absolutely love it!

The Actors Performance of the leading actors are one of the weakest links in the film. Ivanovska has serious problems in portraying the higher class role that she is assign to here. Kocev sounds more gentlemen-like than her. Ivanovska appearance is attractive but her acting skill are quite low making the love story not to be so good. Kocev compared to Ivanovska looks like a much better actor but he is not great also. However the rest of the cast is much better than the leading couple. Serbedzija is great also the couch Sammel other actors with memorable performance are Apostolski (the club president) and the Bulgarian officer.

The Storyline Is well written does a good job of incorporating many different and parallel story lines and has multiple levels. Give a nice impressions of the "spirit of the time". It is also interesting that all characters speak their native language instead of some artificial "common language" aka English what gives more realism to the film.

The Camera and Photography are good the camera functions very well in dynamic and static mode give nice aspect of the dynamic football game and more static narrative. The photography is bright and positive dispute the sometimes dark narrative. You can fell the warmth of the land and southern summer sun.

The Music and the Sound Are maybe weakest links of film along with the acting of Ivanovska. The music consist of traditional song singed by the protagonists the rest of the music is standard issue Hollywood music clips. The sound is also a bite problematic some of the comments by the football players are hard to hear due to the high background noise.

The Director did a well job in organized this a bite complicated film and hard to tell story. Although he lack sometimes the creativity and goes into well known clichés.

Even though I'm from Macedonia, I will try to review this title from the most objective point of view possible.

I honestly had a higher expectations from this motion picture, simply because I believed (and I still do) that the director Darko Mitverski is a great director. Unfortunately, better director than this movie.

The movie according to my humble opinion is good, but not excellent. Good idea, averagely implemented. The characters are not fully processed and most part of scenes and time on screen is wasted on less important facts (some fictional) for the story line. Emil Ruben and Richard Sammel delivered amazing roles. Toni Mihajlovski and Verica Nedeska too who had small parts proved that all what outstanding actors need is one or two short lines and gestures to make a great role. This is Saso Kocev's first leading role in a movie and that's why I'm gonna give him a break. He really was trying but sometimes is hard to deliver a believable character when you have a partner like Katarina Ivanovska who looks great and breathtaking and nothing else. I don't know much about the movie making process in general, but I most definitely know that you DO NOT sacrifice the whole movie for a couple of camera shots on a pair of perfectly shaped breasts. If I was the director I would have chosen Verica Nedeska for the part of Rebeka.

From an aesthetic point of view (costume designs, photography and scenery) the movie makes positive progress in the Macedonian cinematography but we've already seen all that in the Milco Mancevski movies so yes, progress but nothing unseen or outstanding especially if we consider the money spent on the film.

All in all, I really wanted to fell in love with this movie but it was impossible. I don't react well on movies which try to push down my throat way too pathetic scenes on a patriotic basis. I'm gonna be honest and say that there were some scenes that provoked tears in my eyes but they didn't deliver anything huge. Maybe I'm the problem. Maybe I've already seen too many motion pictures and theatrical performances in my life to blindly shout out loud Hooray!

Two thumbs up beside all. It's better to have any kind of movie, than no movie at all. For all you reading, watch it and make a decision on your own. The third Half it is a movie that impacts differently on different types of people.

In Macedonia, during World War II, a football team hires a German coach to improve its results. But the war will son caught up with the team, as the German-allied Bulgarian army invades the country. Sasko Kocev stars as Kosta, a handsome if a somewhat rakish footballer. Kosta pursues the beautiful Rebecca (Katarina Ivanovska), the daughter of Don Raphael (veteran actor Rade Serbezidja), a wealthy Jewish businessman. Richard Sammer is Spitz, the German trainer, who is persecuted by the authorities after they find he is a Jew (this is based on a real character, though many details were changed). The movie also covers a lot of political issues, like the Bulgarian-Macedonian rivalry, which I can't comment on deeply since it is a territory I'm quite unfamiliar with. This political aspect can be quite crude. For instance, all the Bulgarian characters look bad here, starting with the nasty General Gorvanov (a great performance of Emil Ruben). Overall, this is an entertaining film. Note: the former Yugoslavia seems to have cornered the market on period football films: some years ago, there was a fine Serbian film called Bog Te Video, about the Yugoslavian team that played in the 1930's World Cup.

embroidery of stories. slice of history. joy, love, ambition, passion. and the war. changing all. a great film for the fine recreation of atmosphere. for the good intentions. for the sketch of love story. for the passion for football in coherent manner. like many films from the East, a form of exorcism. not real surprising. because the art is tool for old testimonies about pain, injustice, hope, small victories. and this is the motif for see The Third Halv. more as a collection of old photos than example of acting. because remains the impression of fear of actors to assume in real manner, the roles. sure, an explanation could be the absence of artistic skills. but important remains the authenticity of scenes from a lost Macedonia and the stories of this in many ways, ignored land.this is the essence of the work of Darko Mitrevski. and it is an admirable work.