[PEN-L:7397] Pretty Villages, Pretty Flame

[Sam Pawlett <rsp@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

_Pretty Villages, Pretty Flame_ is a film by Srdjan Dragojevich. Cast:
Dragan Bjelogrlic, Nikola Kojo, Nikola Pejakovich.

This is a low budget Serbian film about the Bosnian civil war that was
criticized for being Serb propaganda and a "fascist" film.  It is a
strong anti-war film that is deeply pessimistic about the political
situation in Bosnia, the causes of the war and the future of the region.
The war is seen mostly as a rural phenomenon. Its main merit is that it
is Serbian and is told from a Bosnian Serb point of view yet the film
confirms a point of view that has been prevalent in the Western
capitalist press, namely that the Bosnian situation is the result of
ages old irreconcilable ethnic prejudice that is  deeply rooted in the
psyche of all ethnic groups in Bosnia. The war is portrayed as an
irrational orgy of violence, destruction that results in people, who in
many cases know each other, murdering each other and carrying out
senseless destruction. There is no reason at all why these peoples
should be at war with each other.
   The story revolves around Milan, a Serb, and Hamil, a Muslim, who
live in the same village and as young boys become best friends, grow up
together going through the travails of adolescence and eventually open a
garage together until the war starts. They end up on opposite sides of
the war. The film tries to explain what happened,once the war starts, to
people like Milan and Hamil who had lived for a long time together in
peace and friendship.  Its only answer is a deep rooted sense of
persecution that each ethnic group feels.  For most of the film we
follow Milan's 6-man Serb paramilitary force in its exploits of violence
and destruction. The film is imaginatively constructed through a series
of flashbacks and shifting time sequences of 12 years of Yugoslav
history. It contains realistic battle sequences that will turn even the
most desensitized viewers stomach. The film contains its share of
surrealism, bitter irony and black humor causing one reviewer to call it
"the Full Metal Jacket of Bosnia".
    The climax of the film takes place in a railway tunnel that we are
introduced to in the beginning of the film as a tunnel of "brotherhood
and unity" built by the Titoists to symbolize the linking of Belgrade
and Zagreb. As young boys, Milan and Hamil are scarred to enter the
tunnel for fear of an ogre that might live inside. They discover later
that the ogre only exists inside themselves. Milan's group of Serbs are
chased into the tunnel by a larger Muslim militia that is led by his
best friend Hamil and the siege lasts ten days.  The whole Bosnian
tragedy is played out in microcosm during these ten days. The groups
taunt each other with racial slurs and jokes, calling each other "Turks"
and "Chetniks" and threatening to hack each other to pieces. We see the
taunts are for real as the Muslims send down a Serb women battered and
raped beyond recognition. Milan recognizes her as his old schoolteacher
and is ordered to shoot her for she might be booby-trapped. He can't
pull the trigger so someone else does.
      We meet each of the Serb militiamen; a tough long haired young
peasant named "Fork" who is the best soldier, a former thief, the
"professor", an ex-Belgrade junkie sent into the army for rehab, all led
by a senior JNA Titoist partisan veteran whose reminiscences of the Tito
years and his time with the partisans bring tears to his eyes. One of
the Muslims is a former comrade of his in the JNA. They both accuse each
other of betrayal. A female American journalist shows up in the tunnel
who cannot speak Serb-Croat and is totally spellbound by the extreme
violence, hatred and irrationality. When the militia loots Muslim homes
and villages, the Serbs walk out with T.V. sets while the professor
walks out only with books.
    When Milan finally tries to escape he is caught by Hamil. Hamil asks
"Why did you burn down our garage?" " I didn't" Milan answers, "Why did
you kill my mother?" Milan replies. "I didn't".  This brief dialogue
highlights the absurdity, brutality and irrationality of the war as well
as its personal nature for many of the participants.
   The film flashes back to a scene in a military hospital where Milan,
the junkie, and the professor are all bedridden. Buxom nurses strut
around callously flirting with the guard. A peace protest takes place
outside the hospital where Milan takes a pint of blood and throws it
through the window at them.  A Muslim is wheeled in and put in solitary
adjacent to the Serbs. Milan saves his dinner fork and drags himself on
the floor intent on killing him. The professor goes after him but Milan
ends up impaling himself on the fork. All the major characters in the
film end up dead. A fitting denouement to this horrible war.
   In short, the film is a brilliant 'Full Metal Jacket'  of the Bosnian
war even if its explanations are flawed.

Sam Pawlett