Milena Dravic Movies

This gritty, complex period piece unfurls circa 1914, against the explosive backdrop of the early-World War I Balkans. In a Serbian village on the banks of the Sava River (which constitutes the border of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), the local population falls into two factions with radically different ideologies: the veterans from prior Balkan conflicts, many of whom are invalids given their war casualties, and the new military recruits - young, strapping and full of vigor. When the Great War formally erupts following the Archduke's assassination, the new recruits of the village march off to the front lines, leaving the invalids behind; many of those who remain willfully and irresponsibly take sexual advantage of the soldiers' wives and sisters. News of this reaches the Serbian High Command shortly before the battles commence; in response, he summons the invalids and places them at the front lines, in an attempt to effectively deal with the guilty parties. Meanwhile, an unexpected romance blossoms between an area policeman, his wife, and a Balkan war invalid. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Directed by Srdjan Karanovic, Sjaj u Ocima (Loving Glances) is set in 1995 Belgrade. Despite a war raging in the background, young people throughout the country are trying in vain to fall in love and get married, as they feel a normal life would ensconce them. When refugee Labud (Senad Alihodzic), a draft-dodging Serbian student, comes to the city without a job or dime to his name, he turns to a marriage broker (Milena Dravic) to help him find the woman of his dreams. He is paired with Romana (Ivana Bolanca), a pretty Belgrader who, despite a sophisticated facade, is also a penniless refugee. Sjaj u Ocima also features Jelena Dokic. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Back from the war, Croatian-born Sergije (Slavko Stimac) and Bosnian buddy Nikola (Srdjan Todorovic) rent beach chairs in Belgrade to Sava Lake sunbathers. Unable to locate his missing family, Sergije is barely surviving during the economic crisis. Sergije loves attractive Sonja (Mirjana Jokovic), who has been forced into prostitution to support her family, but their love appears doomed. This $1.7 million drama, Yugoslavia's entry for the foreign-language Academy Award, won the country's national film prize. Shown at 1997 film festivals in Palm Springs and Macedonia. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

This black comedy is the latest from Goran Markovic, a life-long resident of Belgrade whose last film Tito and Me (1992) was the last film ever made in Yugoslavia. This black comedy masks tragic undertones as it tells the tale of the head of a Belgrade mental asylum known only as the Doctor as he tries to return his loony patients to their families after his hospital runs out of supplies. He and his patients set off across the city and the Doctor is dismayed to learn that few of their families want them back. During the journey, an old man and woman fall in love and the other patients marry them in a gay, slightly crazed ceremony. Fortunately for the bride, the groom still has family and land. Unfortunately his two grown sons don't realize that their father is coming. When he and his bizarre entourage suddenly arrive, much fighting ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

High school teenagers gather in a Belgrade courtyard after class in this teen comedy. One is chased by a truant officer who wants him to write an essay. Another boy earns money by scalping soccer tickets. The teens go though the typical adventures of school dances, peer pressure and first loves. They gather to help the likeable milkman when he is pestered by local bullies. The plot focuses on teen life in 1963 Belgrade and avoids the usual political posturing and melodramatics usually associated with Yugoslav films. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A youthful Brad Pitt stars in this drama about a man looking for the cure to a rare skin disease who discovers love on the way. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Politics issues dominate this sci-fi story set in 2041 in the former Yugoslavia. Most of Europe is now controlled by "thought police," but a former politician and an ex-cop are running a girls' boarding school in defiance of the current regime, modeled on the more idyllic 1980s. These partners want to revamp the ruins of Belgrade so electricity and water can be restored and the buildings made habitable again. The citizens are currently scattered across the countryside, and the film follows them, as well as the boarding school directors and a female reporter, as they all work together to confront the system. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this light comedy that does not have much going for it except the lead actress Sonja Savic, a young woman decides it is time to have an adult relationship with a man, and believing that her nose is too unattractive, she opts for cosmetic surgery. Along with the change in her facial configuration, she also changes from jeans to skirts -- and of course, a former boyfriend suddenly sees her in a different light. It looks as if her first adult relationship will be built on surface appearances. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A surgeon (Velimir Zivojinovic) who has everything a man could possibly want: a good career, a loving family, an attractive wife, and a beautiful mistress as well -- decides that everything is not enough, and aims to grab the directorship of a new and prestigious medical clinic. In order to obtain his goal, he has to make sure that both he and his wife present the right façade at an important Sunday dinner related to the director's job. As might be expected, things somehow deteriorate and the surgeon is left with an entirely different set of problems than he had the day before. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In another Yugoslavian feature film that seems to have been created as a pilot for a TV series rather than as a self-contained feature-length movie, a series of characters gather around specific incidents and then disperse. The story begins with a student who arrives in town and happens upon a card game in which one of the participants is a traveling salesman beset with the classic struggles of home, debt, family, and more debt. He leads the way to his home and its environment, complete with fatuous teenagers and a bumbling wife. Into this less-than-perfect world enters the student, looking to work for them. And so the situation comedy continues, revolving from one situation to the next. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Brushed with shadings of a larger social and political commentary, this occasionally hilarious and consistently funny comedy looks at a closet alcoholic, Dr. Ilich (Ljuba Tadic) who treats alcoholism in others with an iron hand and a zany therapeutical approach. Between the music of Wagner, a diet in which apples figure prominently, and exercises that look like Chicken Little in take-off mode, the doctor is convinced his patients will be cured. What really ails most of them is what caused their alcohol problem in the first place -- so when the eccentric doctor takes six of his patients to a nearby brewery to demonstrate the success of his treatment, chaos results. First the apples taken on the trip are spiked by one patient (two of them "clink" their apples in joy) and then the brewery management and its own alcohol-addicted crew add to the patients' antics. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide