Aleksandar Jovanovic Movies

Produced and directed by seven Munich Film School students, Honolulu takes place not in Hawaii, but inside of a rural town just outside of Munich, Germany. Several vignettes, lasting approximately 10 to 15 minutes each, are connected by one of the town's public bus routes, outside of which two men (Stefan Maass and Jochen Nickel) booze the night away while waiting for the bus to make its rounds. There is a brief encounter between a shy young man (Daniel Bruehl) and notorious party girl Chiara Schoras), as well as a strange meeting of an eccentric Slav (Aleksandar Jovanovi) and a girl (Julia Hummer) who is fresh from a break-up with her former boyfriend. Other characters work their way into the plot, including lesbian bus driver with dreams of leaving the country for Honolulu, a smooth-talking and slightly unbalanced young man who puts the moves on a shy bride-to-be, and a Middle Eastern immigrant who finds himself comforting a lonely rich girl on her birthday. Honolulu also features Anna Thalbach, Markus Knuefken, Mehdi Moinzadeh, and Alexandra Maria Lara. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Though they have safely reestablished themselves in Austria, a Serbian family find themselves unable to escape the horrifying conflict that ripped the former Yugoslavia apart. In making his tragic drama, screenwriter/director Goran Rebic used no actual war footage and shows less than a minute of fighting. Young Milan and his family immigrated to Austria a while ago and feel out of touch with the increasing violence in their homeland. Still the news is sufficiently bad that they decide to try to get Milan's grandmother and his older brother Sascha out of the country. En route, Sascha is apparently kidnapped and does not show up until a year later, with a Bosnian wife in tow. Despite the family's joy at his return, they soon notice disturbing changes in Sascha. Neighborhood scuttlebutt races rampantly that Sascha committed terrible war crimes. The extremely nationalistic Bora, Sascha's father is not overly disturbed by the allegations, believing them to be a sign of Sascha's Serbian loyalties. Bora proves to be the catalyst for tragedy, one that overwhelms friends, family and the increasingly depressive and obviously traumatized Sascha. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide