In one sentence: The film really tastes like a yesterday's lunch.
It compares very much with another Balkan film I commented on negatively - the Greek "Ulysses' Gaze" by Theo Angelopoulos. It also aspires to demonstrate the epic and tragic 20th century fate of a Balkan people - this time the macedonian bulgarians - yet it also fails to touch the viewer emotionally. He is just presented with the suffering rather than be let to share it and live it. The attempt to squeeze 4 different epochs of the turbulent Macedonian history (from 1920s to 1990s) in 2 hours dilutes any quality that could make a film good or any messages it might have.
However I quite liked the only message that got through for me: it does not matter who holds the power - the serbians, the bulgarians, the new Macedonists, or the New Democracy. Its always the decent people who will be under and be abused: power attracts only scum - this is something that quite much pervades all our lives today in any Balkan country.
One thing which annoyed me was that the characters spoke in modern standard Bulgarian rather than the speech of their place and respective times. The film is co-production of Bulgaria and Republic of Macedonia but as far as I could see, only the author of the novel on which it is based and 3 or 4 actors were from Macedonia. Ironicly, all macedonian roles were played by Bulgarian actors, while the Serbian characters (i.e. the very bad guys whose main goal was the suppression of macedonians) - by the macedonian actors.
It compares very much with another Balkan film I commented on negatively - the Greek "Ulysses' Gaze" by Theo Angelopoulos. It also aspires to demonstrate the epic and tragic 20th century fate of a Balkan people - this time the macedonian bulgarians - yet it also fails to touch the viewer emotionally. He is just presented with the suffering rather than be let to share it and live it. The attempt to squeeze 4 different epochs of the turbulent Macedonian history (from 1920s to 1990s) in 2 hours dilutes any quality that could make a film good or any messages it might have.
However I quite liked the only message that got through for me: it does not matter who holds the power - the serbians, the bulgarians, the new Macedonists, or the New Democracy. Its always the decent people who will be under and be abused: power attracts only scum - this is something that quite much pervades all our lives today in any Balkan country.
One thing which annoyed me was that the characters spoke in modern standard Bulgarian rather than the speech of their place and respective times. The film is co-production of Bulgaria and Republic of Macedonia but as far as I could see, only the author of the novel on which it is based and 3 or 4 actors were from Macedonia. Ironicly, all macedonian roles were played by Bulgarian actors, while the Serbian characters (i.e. the very bad guys whose main goal was the suppression of macedonians) - by the macedonian actors.