Rade Serbedzija Movies

The Italian The Falcon has nothing to do with the RKO detective series of the same name. This Falcon is a medieval swashbuckler, played by Franco Nero. After several examples of derring-do, Nero sets about to rescue a damsel in distress. Given the Falcon's romantic nature, the girl may not be entirely out of danger once she's rescued, wink-wink nudge-nudge. At 105 minutes, The Falcon has aspirations to be an epic, but falls just a little short. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Milcho Manchevski's first feature film is a three-part story of the violence and political chaos tearing apart the newly independent nation of Macedonia (former Yugoslavia). In part one, Kiril (Grégoire Colin), an Orthodox monk, encounters Zamira (Labina Mitevska), a Muslim from Albania. Zamira is frightened and has nowhere to go, so Kiril lets her stay in his cell, knowing that if the authorities find her, his peaceful life will be shattered. The second segment, set in London, concerns Anne (Katrin Cartlidge), married to stable but boring Nick (Jay Villiers) but enjoying an affair with Macedonian photographer Aleksander (Rade Serbedzija); Anne is trying to decide if she should stay with Nick or leave with Aleksander, before unexpected events make the decision for her. The conclusion follows Aleksander back to Macedonia; while he's tired of photographing war, he finds no sanctuary in his home town, as Christians and Muslims wage war and he accidentally causes the death of innocent bystanders. Before the Rain received an 1995 Academy Award nomination as Best Foreign Language Film. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Along with Once Were Warriors, Broken English effectively captures contemporary New Zealand as a society in transition. Broken English dramatizes how the effect of immigration to the cities of New Zealand by both its native peoples, the Maoris, and Europeans seeking refuge from political persecution has not produced a harmonious melting pot. Ivan (Rade Serbedzija) is an embittered Croatian who fled to his wife's native Aukland when war broke out in Bosnia. Brooding over TV news reports on what is happening to his homeland (and displaying more than a little guilt over his flight from there), Ivan lashes out at anyone outside of his insulated Croatian community, including his gentle Maori neighbors. His drug-running business allows him a comfortable lifestyle, but he's still irritated that his young adult daughters won't mind him. The eldest, Nina (Aleksandra Vujcic), is a waitress who takes up with a colleague, a Maori cook named Eddie (Julian "Sonny" Arahanga, who also appeared in Once Were Warriors), in part because he's attractive but also to tweak her father. Complicating matters is an arranged marriage Nina has agreed to with a Chinese immigrant colleague at the restaurant; he's willing to pay her 16,000 dollars just to make his residency legal, so he can be with his girlfriend, Clara. Originally rated NC-17 for an energetic but hardly explicit sex scene between Nina and Eddie, the film was later edited to earn an "R" rating. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi

In the palmy springtime of their youth before war tears the former Yugoslavia apart, Aleksa and Pavie (Rados Bajic and Rade Serbedzjia) were buddies, despite the fact that they were in love with the same woman. War has come, and Aleksa is now a major, sent back to Belgrade to get some rest and to court-martial a soldier who killed a civilian woman. There he runs into Pavie, who has a girl child in tow. Their old friendship keeps Aleksa from turning Pavie in as a deserter. He is shocked when he is told that the girl is Aleksa's daughter from their old girlfriend, who has since died. The girl comes to live with him and he rearranges his life to accomodate her, but she dies before he can quite come to grips with her existence. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The final work of legendary director Stanley Kubrick, who died within a week of completing the edit, stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, at the time Hollywood's most bankable celebrity couple, and was shot on a open-ended schedule (finally totaling over 400 days), with closed sets in London standing in for New York City. Cruise and Kidman play William and Alice Harford, a physician and a gallery manager who are wealthy, successful, and travel in a sophisticated social circle; however, a certain amount of decadence crosses their paths on occasion, and a visit to a formal-dress party leads them into sexual temptation when William is drafted into helping a beautiful girl who has overdosed on drugs while Alice is charmed by a man bent on seduction. While neither William and Alice act on their adulterous impulses, once the issue has been brought into the open, it begins a dangerous season of erotic gamesmanship for the couple, with William in particular openly confronting his desire for new sexual experiences. What didn't make the final cut of Eyes Wide Shut may have been as fascinating as what finally appeared on screen: Harvey Keitel was replaced almost immediately by Sydney Pollack, while Jennifer Jason Leigh was replaced by Marie Richardson after she had shot all her scenes and left town. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A young clerk follows in his father's footsteps and goes to work for a bank. He soon discovers his attitudes about work and social conditions have been passed down through the generations. Longing to break away from the life of a predictable, colorless bean counter, the young man battles bureaucratic dehumanization and dreams of leaving his dull existence behind. During a job-screening process, he and another woman comically try to hide urine specimens from each other. This satirical comedy feature is subtitled "The Fantastic Youth of Boris Horvat the Clerk." ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Maruschka Detmers stars as Hannah Senesh, a real-life Hungarian Jew who became a martyr to the cause of freedom during WW II. Though safely ensconced in Palestine at the outbreak of the war, Hannah volunteers to venture behind enemy lines in Europe on a life-or-death mission. Unfortunately, she is captured, undergoing unspeakable tortures before the Germans are finished with her. The script, based on Hannah's diaries (as edited by Yoel Palgi), surprisingly downplays heroics in favor of sensationalism; the prison scenes could just as well have been lifted from a Linda Blair "babes behind bars" picture. Even so, Detmers is excellent in the title role, while Ellen Burstyn is likewise superb as Hannah's mother. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This comedy employs techniques reminiscent of the silent film era. Walking down a country road, a man encounters an eccentric living in a wrecked car. The meeting with the stranger allows him to meet a variety of other characters. He encounters a trained parrot, an underground filmmmaker, a pompous local official and a driver who objects to giving him a ride. The filmmaker is in the middle of a production about a revolution that features a nude woman. Ivica Vidovic is the quaint comic who experiences more than he bargained for on his quiet walk in the country. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A Serbian man and a Bosnian woman fall in love, but when the Bosnian War begins to tear apart the region in a wave of violence and ethnic strife, their chance at happiness together quickly dissipates. The directorial debut of Oscar winning actress Angelina Jolie, In the Land of Blood and Honey stars Goran Kostic and Zana Marjanovic as the star-crossed lovers. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi