The woman had never bothered to introduce herself. Late in "Klopka", Mladen(Nebojsa Glogovac) learns from his wife that the unconscious woman whose life he saved by rushing her to the emergency room, gave the name Jelena(Anica Dobra) over the phone. This anonymity comes as a shock to the viewer since the recently widowed mother of a young girl seemingly conveyed an impression of friendliness towards Mladen, just like the day they first met outside their children's school. In retrospect, though, after learning exactly how disparate the two families are class-wise in the newly democratized Serbia, Jelena's niceness gains an opaqueness, an edge. After Nemanja misreads Isidora's instigation of a snowball fight as a friendly overture, he offers the girl his gloves to alleviate the coldness in her hands. When she snatches them away, Jelena explains the girl's bratty behavior as a symptom of her husband overindulging their child. For good measure, once their ride arrives, Isidora throws the gloves on the ground, then throws a snowball in the boy's face. Nemanja looks hurt and confused; he's slackjawed, as the snow clings to his face, humiliated by the girl's lack of grace. Through all of this, Jelena never corrects her daughter's insolent boorishness. Needless to say, the husband doesn't drive a Renault. Men like Jelena's husband stopped driving inferior cars after privatization became Serbian law in 2001, setting up a situation of class warfare that "Klopka" dramatizes with great complexity, almost as an afterthought.
Due to rising medical costs, Mladen finds himself in the absurd position of accepting a contract killing job, when a man named Kosta(Miki Manojilovic) responds to the newspaper ad for Nemanja's condition which Marija(Natasa Ninkovic) placed over her husband's steady protestations. The target, in a "Crash"-like coincidence, turns out to be Jelena's husband. More than a contract killer, the father acts as his son's vigilante, in which Ivkovich's assassination outside his home bears an unmistakable subtext of working class retribution against the elitist mindset of the nouveau rich that had given Isidora the agency to treat Mladen's son like a nothing without apology. This subtext of vigilantism becomes more readily apparent in later scenes where both husband and wife vent their frustrations against the new Serbia, where a picture frame, Marija learns, is worth more than a child's life. Clearly, "Klonka" implicitly endorses a return to socialism, as the film itself is a rally cry against the consumer culture of a democratic government which values things over people. Clearly, the parents are suffering from culture shock. The disdainful manner in which Ivkovich(Dejan Cukic) approaches Mladen becomes the film's main motif. Although Mladen aims a gun at Ivkovich's chest, the proletarian man isn't taken seriously(just like the cops who don't believe his confession, nor Kosta who asks for a cup of coffee at gunpoint). "I'm gonna kick your a**," are Ivkovich's last words before he's riddled with bullets.
The snowball that Isidora had thrown at Nemanja just keeps getting bigger(there's no doubt that the snowball is a metaphor for Serbia's growing pains with the newly-installed democratic government). In the film's most intriguing scene, what are we to make of Mladen's expression after Jelena tells him, "That money isn't much for me, and it would solve everything for you," when she offers to pay for Nemanja's operation. Does he pick up on her condescending tone, even though he's still racked with guilt? Does he equate Jelena with the rich clubhopper, whose car window he smashes in with a rock? While the snowball is the inevitable cause of Mladen's death, the child redeems herself during a pointed scene at the hospital, in which the egalitarian ways of socialism makes a brief comeback, when the bourgeoisie girl shares her earphone with the proletarian man, as they sit side-by-side in the hospital waiting room. That small gesture is the heart of "Klopka", in a film that quietly endorses anarchy.
Due to rising medical costs, Mladen finds himself in the absurd position of accepting a contract killing job, when a man named Kosta(Miki Manojilovic) responds to the newspaper ad for Nemanja's condition which Marija(Natasa Ninkovic) placed over her husband's steady protestations. The target, in a "Crash"-like coincidence, turns out to be Jelena's husband. More than a contract killer, the father acts as his son's vigilante, in which Ivkovich's assassination outside his home bears an unmistakable subtext of working class retribution against the elitist mindset of the nouveau rich that had given Isidora the agency to treat Mladen's son like a nothing without apology. This subtext of vigilantism becomes more readily apparent in later scenes where both husband and wife vent their frustrations against the new Serbia, where a picture frame, Marija learns, is worth more than a child's life. Clearly, "Klonka" implicitly endorses a return to socialism, as the film itself is a rally cry against the consumer culture of a democratic government which values things over people. Clearly, the parents are suffering from culture shock. The disdainful manner in which Ivkovich(Dejan Cukic) approaches Mladen becomes the film's main motif. Although Mladen aims a gun at Ivkovich's chest, the proletarian man isn't taken seriously(just like the cops who don't believe his confession, nor Kosta who asks for a cup of coffee at gunpoint). "I'm gonna kick your a**," are Ivkovich's last words before he's riddled with bullets.
The snowball that Isidora had thrown at Nemanja just keeps getting bigger(there's no doubt that the snowball is a metaphor for Serbia's growing pains with the newly-installed democratic government). In the film's most intriguing scene, what are we to make of Mladen's expression after Jelena tells him, "That money isn't much for me, and it would solve everything for you," when she offers to pay for Nemanja's operation. Does he pick up on her condescending tone, even though he's still racked with guilt? Does he equate Jelena with the rich clubhopper, whose car window he smashes in with a rock? While the snowball is the inevitable cause of Mladen's death, the child redeems herself during a pointed scene at the hospital, in which the egalitarian ways of socialism makes a brief comeback, when the bourgeoisie girl shares her earphone with the proletarian man, as they sit side-by-side in the hospital waiting room. That small gesture is the heart of "Klopka", in a film that quietly endorses anarchy.