Sonja Savic Movies

Jan Cvitkovic makes his directorial debut with this drama about fate, substance abuse, and human frailty. As a result of a strike by medical employees, Ivan is released one day early from his alcohol detox program, returning home to his loving, cheerful wife, Sonja, who tries to guide him back to normal life. The following morning, Sonja leaves for work as a housekeeper to a wealthy family, asking her husband to go and fetch some milk and bread at the local store. On the way, he runs into Armando, his junior high school chum who he has not seen in years. While chatting in a local pub, Armando confesses to Ivan that he had a fling with Sonja just before Ivan married her. Rattled by the admission, Ivan inadvertently slugs down a glass of brandy, effectively falling off the wagon. This relapse strains the already tense relationship between Ivan and his teenaged son, Robi. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

With a style reminiscent of Jean-Luc Godard, this Serbian drama follows a half-dozen prostitutes who arrive in a small Serbian village on the Danube and get involved with six local men, including a campanologist seeking "blue tone" church bells and a famed fashion designer returning to his birthplace. Subplots include plans for stealing tulip bulbs from Holland to launch a local tulip industry and the marketing of a perfume with a hand-grenade package design. Shown at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Slobodan Negic plays "The Professor," a brainy kid born to wealth. His opposite number is the homeless, orphaned "Cavka" (Yugoslavian for "Blackbird"), portrayed by Marko Ratic. In the tradition of the "Our Gang" comedies of yore, the Professor is forbidden by his snooty parents from associating with such riffraff as Cavka. How the boys outwit their elders and have a wonderful time forms the nucleus of this carefree comedy-drama. This Yugoslav-British co-production, was released to English-speaking theaters only a few months after its European debut. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A mix of politics and sex (not an unheard-of combination historically) forms the "softcore" of this film about a winsome young student (Sonja Savic) out to seduce a professor in order to tape whatever he confides to her -- hopefully, of a political content. When Una's boyfriend is thrown in jail, she is brought in to see the authorities. They ask her, as a student, to get to know radical Professor Michel Babic (Rade Serbedzija) and try to capture any incriminating evidence against him on tape. Soon Una and Michel are in a hot, steamy affair, and as one sex scene follows another in quick succession, everyone seems to have forgotten about the political motivation that started it all.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this black satire flashing back to the 1950s Yugoslavia under Tito, when relations with the Soviet Union were broken off, a pro-Stalinist Iliya (Danilo Bata Stojkovic) and his brother have never wavered in their political support of the Soviet dictator and his policies. They both served prison terms back in the 1950s for their beliefs. Now nearly three decades have passed, and a new neighbor who has spent a long time in Paris comes under police suspicion because of his long years outside the country. It turns out, however, that the man is innocent of any wrong-doing but Iliya is convinced he is a spy for the forces of imperialism, and, armed with a tape-recorder and camera, he carries out a surreptitious, evidence-gathering surveillance. At the same time, Iliya is whipping up his neighbors into a real frenzy of anti-imperialist furor directed against the hapless neighbor. Before Iliya can be stopped, even his wife joins him, but his daughter is hardly a convert -- embarrassed would be a better word. Humor and pathos rise along with the paranoia, as Iliya and his delusions rule the day. This film won the Golden Arena award at the 1984 Pula Film Festival, and Danilo Bata Stojkovic was awarded "Best Actor" for his role as Iliya, at the same festival. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Nesto Izmedju is an intellectually comic spoof of cultural morés and linguistic groping between an American journalist (Caris Corfman) and two Yugoslav men who "court" her -- a doctor (Predrag Manojlovic) and a playboy (Dragan Nikolic). As each man tries to outdo the other for her affections, the American makes note of the aspects of the culture that might understandably seem a bit odd (eight rotating presidents at the time, for example). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi