The dialogue is in Serbian but is translated in English subtitles.OK, I finally got round to watching A Serbian FILM. It definitely has the quality to interest and absorb an audience. There have been a number of Eastern European titles released in Britain and the Leeds International Film Festival has featured a number.
Whether it will get a British release is too early to say. The film was runner-up in the Panorama Audience awards, recognition of its quality. Both of these are well done as is the overall design, using a lot of location work. The cinematography was by Bamjan Radanovic and the editing by Milena Petrovic. The listings for cast and crew are incomplete, hence I cannot identify all the actors in lead roles. He was obviously paying attention from the start. The Director is Miroslav Terzic who seems to have started his film-making career as clapper boy on Emir Kusturica’s Underground(1995). In a sense a metaphor for the situation that the film dramatizes. One character watches another unobserved in silence. And the final scenes are as effective as the opening. The early stages of the film as Ana’s quest develops and we start to understand her dilemma are very well done. There is a sort of resolution for Ana herself and a reconciliation within the family. It is clear that the police and politicians are unwilling to deal with this, if not actually complicit. The resolution does not really resolve the loss or address the scam.
Unsurprisingly hidden information emerges and Ana’s quest restarts as she seeks to find out what happened. The other key location is small shop where Ana does dressmaking and clothe repairs: hence the film’s title. Her daughter has lost all sympathy with her mother. Ana’s husband is sympathetic but weary of the issue. But Ana has never found a grave for the child. It is clear that Ana has been making unavailing investigations for a baby born to her in about 2000 and pronounced dead at the time. Much of the film is based in the apartment Ana shares with her husband and her teenage daughter. The woman by the car will turn out to be involved in the scam of which Ana believes she is the victim.
She in turns looks towards Ana but in the reverse shot Ana is gone and we only see the bare wall. She is looking at the entrance to a hospital and a car pulls in and a woman alights. We see a high wall composed of metal sheeting and Ana appears and looks towards the camera. The drama is very well done and the mother, Ana (Snezana Bogdanovic) is both convincing and generates strong sympathy. The story is a fictional drama but relates to over 400 actual cases and one that generates controversy in the present. Thus it was about the corruption in the Serbian state and the medical institutions. It turned out that it addressed mothers whose children had been stolen for illegal adoption. So, as it became apparent that this was a drama about a mother and a lost child I at first thought this was a consequent of the wars in 1990s. I usually restrict my reading before screenings to a minimum to avoid learning about plots. This title was screened in the Panorama programme at the Berlinale a ‘controversial, politically and challenging programme’.
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