Mirjana Jokovic
- 2003
A woman living alone on an island must fight for her life in the directorial debut of filmmaker Elizabeth Dimon. Although reluctant to do so, island recluse Tess (Mirjana Jokovic) offers her home to Sam (David Thornton) and Nigel (Tomas Arana), a pair of tuxedo-suited (and blood-soaked) strangers who arrive via motorboat with an exotic animal in tow. Allowing them to heal their wounds but desperate to get them out of her home, Tess immediately hides her valuables and frequently makes for the cellar where she appears to speak with an unseen housemate. As the trio engage in a series of complex mind games, it becomes obvious to all that nobody is who anybody else thinks, and mysterious motivations drive Sam and Nigel to extreme measures. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mirjana Jokovic, David Thornton, (more)
Can a wealthy Republican politician find happiness with a chambermaid from the Bronx? One man is about to find out, though he hardly realizes it at first, in this romantic comedy from director Wayne Wang. Marisa Ventura (Jennifer Lopez) is a single mother who is raising her gifted but under-confident son Ty (Tyler Garcia Posey) on her own, with some help from her mother Veronica (Priscilla Lopez), after divorcing her husband. Marisa works as a housekeeper at the exclusive Beresford Hotel in Manhattan, where her boss Paula Burns (Frances Conroy) and chief butler Lionel Bloch (Bob Hoskins) urge Marisa and her best friend and fellow maid Stephanie (Marissa Matrone) to be as efficient and inconspicuous as possible. One day, while cleaning the room of noted socialite Caroline Lane (Natasha Richardson), Stephanie spies a beautiful designer gown and dares Marisa to try it on; against her better judgment, she does, and while all dolled up, she bumps into Christopher Marshall (Ralph Fiennes), a wealthy and well-bred bachelor who is running for the Senate. Immediately charmed, Chris asks Marisa to join him for a walk in Central Park, assuming she's the blue-blooded Caroline. Marisa manages to join Chris for the afternoon, with Ty in tow, and Chris finds himself quite taken with Marisa's beauty and down-to-earth personality, as well as Ty's precocious interest in politics. Chris later calls Caroline's room to set up a lunch date, but soon discovers the stuffy Ms. Lane is not the woman he met before. Marisa is also attracted to Chris, but while her friends encourage her to pursue a romance, Veronica believes her daughter is asking for trouble by trying to win a man so far out of her social strata. The supporting cast also includes Stanley Tucci and Amy Sedaris. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Lopez, Frances Conroy, (more)
- 1998
- R
Goran Paskaljevic directed this French-Yugoslavian-Greek-Macedonian-Turkish comedy-drama about life in contemporary Belgrade. A Cabaret-like emcee introduces a collection of characters seen in the city during a single night: a Bosnian Serb family living in a garage, a middle-aged boxer who kills his best friend, an ex-cop beaten by one of his former victims, a young man attacked by a mob, a former student revolutionary, a VW driver caught in road rage after a minor traffic accident, and an angry young man who hijacks a bus because the driver dawdles over his coffee. The source of the film is a successful stage play by Dejan Dukovski. Shown at 1998 film fests (Venice, Toronto). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miki Manojlovic, Nebojsa Glogovac, (more)
Tony Gerber made his directorial debut with this anthology film, a comedy-drama that opens with a 1950s black-and-white newsreel focusing on the ethnic diversity of New York City. This multicultural mix is dramatized in five interlinked tales set in each of NYC's five boroughs on a hot summer day: In Manhattan, a Soho fashion designer on the brink of eviction begins a relationship with a Japanese department store buyer. In the Bronx, the daughter of a Puerto Rican baker thinks her lover can provide a portal to a glamorous, successful life. For the Queens segment, Gerber expanded his 1995 short film, A Small Taste of Heaven, about a gambling Romanian butcher's apprentice who dreams of someday purchasing a nice suburban house for his wife. On Staten Island, the wife of an Indian limousine driver is treated like a servant by her husband's visiting brother. In Brooklyn, a West Indian man makes the mistake of pawning his wife's family heirlooms to buy a Cadillac. Shown at the 1998 Venice Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valeria Golino, Shashi Kapoor, (more)
- 1997
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
- Starring:
- Slavko Stimac, Mirjana Jokovic, (more)
The travails of a modern Jewish artist and aspiring filmmaker trying to coming to grips with his identity provide the basis of this drama. Paul is obsessed with Hitler and the Holocaust. He is also deluded and self-important. These traits do not endear him to his Yugoslav girl friend when she returns from studying in China. She soon grows tired of his lying and cheating, but this does not prevent her from accepting his proposal and beginning a series of heated debates with his family who opposes their inter-faith union. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jim Helsinger, Mirjana Jokovic, (more)
An unpredictable black comedy with an epic scope, Emir Kusturica's highly acclaimed Underground takes a look at the modern history of Yugoslavia through the often absurd misadventures of two friends over several decades. The film begins in Belgrade in 1941, establishing the friendship between the gregarious Blacky and the more intellectual Marko during a drunken, late-night musical procession that establishes the riotous tone to follow. Fellow members of the Communist Party, the friends also share an involvement in shady business activities and an attraction for a beautiful actress. Soon, the chaos of World War II forces them to take refuge in an underground shelter with a variety of other townspeople. Years pass and the war ends, but Marko and the actress trick the others into believing that the war is still going on. Kusturica turns this inherently absurd premise into a vibrant portrait of the contradictory, foolish nature of war. Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, the film received great acclaim on the festival circuit but had a hard time securing a release in the United States. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miki Manojlovic, Lazar Ristovski, (more)
- 1994
The brutal war between the Serbs and Croats which broke out as soon as Yugoslavia was freed from Communist rule is the subject of this harrowing drama. In the story, a Serbian man and a Croatian woman are being married. Though this was once a commonplace occurrence, today the post-wedding celebrations are interrupted by violent demonstrations of conflict between the two groups. The woman's husband goes off to serve in the Serbian army, never to be seen again, and she is brutally dealt with by Serbian soldiers, while the beautiful multiethnic region of Vukovar is similarly ravaged by the ongoing war. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mirjana Jokovic
- 1991
It is the period just after the cessation of hostilities in World War II, and young Etel and Dani, who are brother and sister, are enjoying a moment of tranquility in the open area near their home, which is just inside the border of Yugoslavia. Out of nowhere a group of Russian soldiers appear, holding Dani while they rape his sister. Curiously, it is Dani who later appears to be the most changed: Etel occupies herself with the child of her rape. During this time, the new communist government of Yugoslavia is engaging in some social engineering: a Serbian family has moved in next to them (they are of Hungarian extraction) and there is immediate dislike between the two families. This does not make the budding romance between a young man from the Serbian family and Etel any easier, any more than the government's so-called "agrarian reform" measures make is easy for farmers to survive. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mirjana Jokovic, Marko Ratic, (more)
- 1991
In this mild drama, a Serbian girl from Yugoslavia (Mirjana Jokovic) has traveled into Germany with visions of a freer, more romance-filled life. Along the way she encounters all sorts of people who are as unsettled as she and confirms for herself that this cannot be her home, and that her native land -- whatever its faults -- is just the place she really wants to be. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mirjana Jokovic, Ben Becker, (more)
- 1989
- PG
The British-Argentine Eversmile New Jersey is the sort of film that seems to be destined from the beginning to be limited to PBS and art-festival showings. Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Fergus O'Connell, an itinerant American dentist, offering his services gratis to the rural Argentine populace. He is able to do this because of the supposedly no-strings sponsorship of a "dental consciousness" foundation. While his motorbike is being repaired, O'Connell falls in love with Estela (Mirjana Jokovic), the garage-owner's daughter. Both lovers have prior commitment--he is married, she is engaged--but they go off together all the same. After a series of surrealistic adventures, O'Connell discovers that there's a subliminal price tag attached to his altruistic free services. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Day-Lewis, Mirjana Jokovic, (more)
- 1989
- R
Maximo Brockman (Adrian Ghio) is an Argentine immigrant who marries Jana (Mira Jokovic), a young Jewish girl from Yugoslavia. After the wedding, they bid goodbye to her parents and board an ocean liner bound for South America. The naive Jana soon discovers her husband is a notorious white slave trader. Although he keeps her as his wife, Maximo forces Jana to work as a prostitute in a Buenos Aires brothel. When she falls in love with an honest local, Maximo resorts to blackmail to keep her. Later, Jara's brother comes over from Yugoslavia to save his sister and restore the family's good name. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adrian Ghio, Mirjana Jokovic, (more)
- 1988
Two very angry teen-aged boys and one similarly wrathful girl are the focus of this tragic drama. In the story, each of them has suffered horrific and repeated rejection by their families, so that they have become each other's support system. When any one of them suffers some hurtful situation, the others show solidarity with them by joining them in acts of vandalism. Unfortunately, this proves not to be the most skillful way to avoid run-ins with the authorities, and they all eventually come to a bad end. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Srdjan Todorovic, Mirjana Jokovic, (more)
