Honeymoons

Acclaimed Serbian director Goran Paskaljevic highlights the growing massive cultural divide between Eastern and Western Europe in this, his 22nd film in 42 years. 

Attempting to find a better life away from home, two couples, Albanians Nick and Melinda, and Serbians Marco and Vera, continually fight authority, stereotypes and themselves in their dreams to pursue happiness at whatever the cost. Though their plights are parallel, and they live in neighboring countries, the two couples never meet. Wanting to be free of family and village traditions, Nick and Melinda can’t wait to travel to the freedom of Italy. Cellist Marco has a chance to play in the Vienna Philharmonic. But a terrorist attack in Kosovo keeps both couples stranded at their respective borders, visas rejected. In the intolerant faces of their captors, they are citizens of an untrustworthy and unstable part of Europe.

The film walks a fine line, keeping a sense of irony without being cynical. Providing no clear-cut resolutions and allowing the audience to provide the answers, the film's ambiguity befits a region that's still reeling from political upheaval. 

Paskaljevic, 64, and Grlic (see elsewhere in festival with Just Between Us) were colleagues at Famu, the influential Prague film school of the late ‘60’s.

Print Source: Christine Gentet-Paskaljevic, paskaljevic@gmail.com