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A Brilliant Conflict

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

I think the movie was very funny, and it had a special allegory, for example: there was any characters that in fact represented their countries, and the main character, Trendafil, represents Macedonia, country born in wars and slavery(Trendafil was born in jail :D) and behind the character of Dzango-war profiteers, behind the albanian smugglers,dealers and slave owners, well-there is nothing hidden there- they are represented as they really are...In the end, Trendafil overcomes his fear of war and violence and leads the children to freedom. This is highly symbolic. The whole script has nothing to do with reality, except the part about Kosovo, it is really a place of criminals smugglers, human trafficking and all sorts of violence. 80% of Europe's heroin come trough kosovo and their gangs are responsible for distribution of weapons and prostitutes through out europe...

I've just watched the movie, it leaves strong impressions. It's not the first movie about Balcans for me, but it's one of the best I've ever seen. It touches hard and delicate topics, it's one of the few movies who is mentioning Kosovo.It is a trip through the countries of ex-Jugoslavia that have been involved in the war in the last 20 years: Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Kosovo with some other near countries as Italy and Bulgaria.The movie follows a style that can be considered typical for ex-Yugoslavian movies: in the beginning is very funny, but it slowly starts to change into something much more serious. I think that the mixture between funny and tragic, between comedy and drama is very well done; this movie could be a masterpiece.It gives a particular and touching view on the human disaster that happened there. The soundtrack includes beautiful Macedonian music and you can hear a lot of different languages: Serbian, Macedonian, Italian, Albanian, Russian...I won't say anything about the final scenes, just: I HOPE IT'S NOT TRUE and it's pure fiction!!

I must say I am a lover of Macedonian culture, especially music and film. That is probably one of the reasons why I expected so much and got so little from this. This one turned out to be a sheer disappointment.First of all, the script is, well...bad. The characters have zero believability and the "plot" is garbage. (Chasing a carpet with a dead granny all over Balkan countries until it is found in Kosovo may sound interesting until you actually see it. It just doesn't work.) The symbolism is either shallow or far-fetched. The acting is not so bad, but unfortunately nothing much could be done with the terrible script. Directing was not so bad either but then, there was that element of what I would call snobbery (both in the script and directing)that I absolutely detested.Maybe this could have been a good movie, unfortunately it is not. It made me watch again the beautiful Macedonian movie "Before the Rain" just to forget this disaster as soon as possible.Normally, I would give it 3/10, however I think the current IMDb rating is very unrealistic, so I'm giving it 1/10.

Anyone familiar with politics and history in the Balkans, particularly in Macedonia, can have it all summed up here. It's a brilliant allegory for the state in which the Balkans exist now. For example, each character represents a different region, and the order of their deaths is significant (most obvious is the death of Ruza's Father (Marshall Tito) before Baba Zumbula (Yugoslavia)). The loss of Baba Zumbula sends Ruza (Serbia) and Trendafil (supposed parts of Macedonia under Serbian and Bulgarian jurisdiction) into a panic and a fruitless search. These are just a few of the allegories you can find, and if you search hard enough, a picture of the Balkans will be painted for you. Although I expected this film to be funny, and it lost much of its humor (though not all... it was mainly dark and bittersweet) about halfway through, I found it to be thoroughly enjoyable. The characters have interesting chemistry and the casting is excellent. It's definitely a thinking film in the guise of a pop culture reel of a wild road trip.See this if you get a chance!