Review of See You in Montevideo

I watched the first movie few years ago and it was a great experience. I grew up in a strict communist country, where even a mere mention that something great was archived by it's predecessor (the European-oriented and democratic Kingdom of Yugoslavia) was forbidden.When I first heard that Yugoslavian football team won bronze medal back in 1930, I thought that somebody was being over-patriotic because I never heard of such event. Luckily I was wrong. The story begins with Yugoslav football team,comprised of Serbs from Belgrade teams, going on sea voyage to Montevideo, to the first ever football championship of the wold,follows their (mis)adventures in the city of Montevideo and matches they participated. There are three characters that made the movie great: Paco is a Croat from Herzegovina that lives in Montevideo.At the beginning, he is very cold and cynical towards the Serbs,but slowly that attitude changes, and there are many warm moments in the movie that makes a viewer believe that those two nations can settle their difference and be nice to each other.He is played by seasoned actor Branko Đurić, one of the best in former Yugoslavia. His acting is a pure 10, and without him, the movie wouldn't be half as good as it is. Petar Strugar plays Moša, player that has swinging moods and somewhere in the middle of the movie, looses his self confidence,which affects his football performance.He regains it in the most touching scene of the movie, among the children with leprosy.I hope to see Strugar in more movies, because he has a charisma and the looks of Žarko Laušević,who lost to a world of acting by a tragic event back in the 90s. Armand Assante plays Hotchkins, a football manager that came to Montevideo in pursuit of fresh cannon fodder for his travelling football circus. His machination almost make the Yugoslav football team crumble.His role is played magnificently,and even though he is as sleazy as a manager can be, I was able to understand his ways and ever look at him as almost a positive character.Great actor and great play! One more thing:the director of this movie is Dragan Bjelogrlić,and he is an actor as well.I dislike him as actor, but his director's opus is great! Hope he produces more movies like this because this is one of the rare sequels that is better than the original movies. All four thumbs up!