MovieChat Forums > Svjedoci (2005) Discussion > Underrated film

Underrated film

posted 19 years ago by cnank
6 replies | jump to latest

Of course, that's probably because it's unknown/not available widely in the U.S. (good luck finding it at Blockbuster, in other words).
This is a dark, somber film that presents a different side of the Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian war than does No Man's Land, for instance -- the civilian side of warfare is really emphasized here, and you really enter the minds of everyday citizens who must deal with bombing raids and shelling of their neighborhoods on a fairly regular basis.
There has been a significant wave of films of this ilk from Balkan? former Yugoslavian? filmmakers in the last five or six years. It's really hard to find some of them, so if anyone has any advice for how to access them (I stumbled across Witnesses by blind luck at my local public library, of all places), I'm interested!

[–] bojman 17 years ago

i'm watching it on verizon on demand right now. it's really cool how they tell the same story about 5 times over and over again, but add in things you didn't know before, including new plot twists. it's a little hard to follow, but it's a very cool device

[–] tkinney 15 years ago

bojman,

This movie was good, no doubt, but you need to check out Akira Kurosawa's RASHOMON if you want to see an original movie that uses the retelling technique. It is a masterpeice.

Or "Hoodwinked" if you want to see a satire of it.

"Have an affair with your child's teacher...Home School."

[–] abvinson 15 years ago

I found this at my public library as well. The "retelling", as you described it, seemed to me a "layering" of the story from each character's perspective. A great storytelling device and it really worked here. Thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Too bad US doesn't turn out more movies with this depth of story, characters, and sensitive direction.

[–] katalist420 14 years ago

I agree, its SOOOO underrated.

9/10 for me personally.
Got it from FILM MOVEMENT and im so glad I did! Its wicked!

[–] biggkayoh 12 years ago

I totally agree.
It's actually one of few, or even the only Croatian movie with war thematic that's not all black-and-white, meaning Croatians being 100% good guys and Serbs being 100% pure evil. I've seen it in a theater back in Croatia originally and it's definitely one of few Croatian movies that I actually liked.

[–] timlin-4 12 years ago

6.9 is overrated. Telling a simple story in a convoluted and drawn-out way is annoying.