I saw this film at the IFFR. After the soundless end most people just sat motionless for a while.
The movie is a merciless and relentless registration of how this abstract term we heard so much about, "ethnic cleansing", could have been in reality. We see a group of young soldiers (the main character is yet beardless) being put to work to execute "the enemy", defenseless boys and men of ages between about 15 and 70. We see young men, boys, being maneuvered into actions of a magnitude and gravity that's completely inconceivably to them. They can not really deal with the situation, and so they don't, they just do what they are told to do and blur their minds with liquor.
There is no pleasing of the audience in this movie; there are no hero's, there's no music, no beautiful scenery, no fast action, and not even judgment. We just see a, apparently very realistic, registration of actions in a slow easy pace, that makes it possible to feel a bit of what the young soldiers must have felt: boredom, heat, confusion, emptiness.
This complete lack of 'pleasers' is what makes this movie very strong, but it's also it's only weak point: it makes it harder to reach the big audience it deserves.
The movie is a merciless and relentless registration of how this abstract term we heard so much about, "ethnic cleansing", could have been in reality. We see a group of young soldiers (the main character is yet beardless) being put to work to execute "the enemy", defenseless boys and men of ages between about 15 and 70. We see young men, boys, being maneuvered into actions of a magnitude and gravity that's completely inconceivably to them. They can not really deal with the situation, and so they don't, they just do what they are told to do and blur their minds with liquor.
There is no pleasing of the audience in this movie; there are no hero's, there's no music, no beautiful scenery, no fast action, and not even judgment. We just see a, apparently very realistic, registration of actions in a slow easy pace, that makes it possible to feel a bit of what the young soldiers must have felt: boredom, heat, confusion, emptiness.
This complete lack of 'pleasers' is what makes this movie very strong, but it's also it's only weak point: it makes it harder to reach the big audience it deserves.