Fabijan Sovagovic Movies

In this politically charged drama, the turbulent times just following Marshal Tito's rejection of ties to Moscow comes to life. Interestingly, even in the first few years after the Yugoslavian leader's death, the subject matter of this film was considered too hot to handle, and the director had to appeal to the courts for permission to shoot it. In the story, Martin is a schoolboy with a sense of the absurd and a willingness to use ridicule to amuse himself and his classmates. He has an uncle who is high up in the nation's bureaucracy who protects him and his grandfather now that his father has died. His grandfather is too stubborn to give his farm to the local farming collective, and Martin himself is in hot water with the principal for making fun of his girlfriend, one of the students at the high school. However, as long as the uncle is able to protect them, they remain out of hot water. Eventually, this situation changes, and things get very chancy indeed for the young satirist and scholar. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Todor the Terrible (Bata Zivojinovic) and his band of fellow klutzes are out to rob their way to riches in this crime comedy by Dejan Sorak set at the end of World War I. Todor and his toadies inhabit a godforsaken region of Bosnia-Croatia, left alone by everyone except the police and the criminals who keep each other company, for the most part. Life takes on new possibilities for Todor when he and his brigands see the eight-minute movie The Great Train Robbery, which they take as nothing less than a do-it-yourself instruction manual. Inspired by this novel idea, they hold up a coach with a very winsome charmer and her wealthy gentleman friend -- and are all the richer for their experience. But misfortune and delusion are in store, as real authorities come into the region, arrest Todor, and schedule him for hanging. Like a cat with nine lives, however, there is a surprise in store for the outlaw as the fates favor him once again with a classic ironic twist. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Three generations of men in a small farm in Croatia are caught in the throes of a generation gap that seems too wide for anyone to bridge. One day the grandfather unsuccessfully tries to hang himself in a desperate attempt to fight his son's modern methods of farming, methods that would trash their family traditions, from his point of view. At the other extreme, the young grandson leaves because he cannot accept the way the farm is managed now -- though he is certain to come back, he needs to escape for awhile. He meets up with a fair maid and enters into a brief liaison before he finds that he is very much enamored of a beautiful mute woman -- and his feelings are reciprocated. In order to further their official relationship, he takes her home to a family gathering, only to churn up the superficially calm waters of the family's diverse personalities; it turns out that his father cannot tolerate the woman's inability to speak. As the disagreements rise to a crescendo, the family will either have to come to terms with their differences, or they may be in danger of disintegrating. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In Dalmatia, police cooperating with the occupying Italians have arrested seven young communists. Their friends decide to free them. However, things go awry, some of the police are killed, and the Italians extract brutal reprisals on the villages of the people involved. After the war, the man who led the effort to free the young men returns home to a mixed reception by the villagers, some of whom will never forgive him for the pain his actions have caused them. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The sweep of history is shown through events as seen in a poor tobacco-growing village. Before World War II, the villagers are not allowed to sell or smoke their own crops. They are forced by the police and authorities to send their entire output to a government monopoly at outrageously low prices. In order to survive, they are forced to try to sell whatever they can hide from the police on the black market. When the war comes, the crop is sold to the Italian occupiers, once again failing to benefit the villagers. Afterwards, the new and more benign state once again resumes monopolistic practices, but at least one farmer cannot accept this. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this science-fiction tale, set in Zagreb, Yugoslavia in 1931, a penniless writer, evicted from his home, discovers that a species of rats has banded together to impersonate humans and supplant them unnoticed, in a manner reminiscent of the transformations in Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros, or the covert conspiracy of pod-people in The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Whether his perceptions are hallucinations due to his hunger or not, by the end of the film, he is the only one left standing. This film's story is based on a book by the Soviet writer Alexander Greene. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Fortunately for them, the husband and sons of an accused witch are able to forestall the unyielding scrutiny of the Church by killing her. Now they must choose which of the sons must die. Considering the sorts of things endured by others caught up in the Inquisition, it would seem that they are getting off lightly. The debauchery of clergy, however, goes completely unpunished. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A young hoodlum who cannot stay out of trouble is hauled in by the police when he gets too rowdy at a bar. While he is being held in jail, he tells his story to an interested police inspector. The main thing currently keeping him from going straight is constant harassment by the police and his neighbors, who seek to keep him from wooing the girl he loves. The inspector agrees to put a lid on the police harassment, and the young man's prospects seem to be looking up. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide