Slavko Stimac Movies

Filmmaker Goran Paskaljevic spins five tales of life in post-millennium Serbia in this provocative omnibus combining elements of comedy and drama. First, a hypnotist arrives in a small village that has been leveled by floods. The mesmerist offers his services to the community, but the residents are suspicious of his motives. Next, a woman is sexually assaulted by the man who owns the firm where she works. Her father is also employed by the same man, but when he seeks revenge, he realizes how powerless he is in this situation. In episode three, a young man loses the money earmarked for his father's funeral in a gambling spree. Desperate to win it back, he turns to an elderly woman who has been enjoying remarkable luck at the slot machines. Part four concerns a doctor who is called to examine the son of a man who operates a slaughterhouse. The boy has developed a dangerous enthusiasm for bloodshed, but the doctor doesn't realize the full ramifications of the boy's attitude until he escapes his family's home. And finally, a confidence man promising new health to a group of ailing and elderly people leaves them stranded in the middle of nowhere en route to taking the cure. Optimisti (aka The Optimists) received its North American premiere at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, 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

The English-language title of this Yugoslav film is Maternal Halfbrothers. The siblings in question are played by Zarko Lascevic and Radoslav Milenkov. The rivalry and enmity between the two is deeper than can be dealt with on a rational basis. The problem: their two fathers are from different ethnic backgrounds. Given the current civil unrest in what used to be Yugoslavia, Braca po Materi may well be more potent and meaningful now than when it was first released. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set against the backdrop of a liberalization in Marshal Tito's Yugoslavia in 1968, this comedy is about the coming of age of Petar (Slavko Stimac) as he looks for love just about anywhere, now that he has discovered it exists. His father (Danilo Stojkovic) is a distant sort who wants him to focus on his grades so he will have a chance at a good future (and be a good Marxist), but Petar's card-shark of a grandfather understands and offers him the advice he needs. Meanwhile, Petar has a crush on his beautiful teacher and wreaks havoc with his academic standing by trying to get back at her for bathing in the river with her male companion. This affront to his feelings is soon forgotten when he meets a charming young miss who is visiting the town with a youth orchestra -- and love takes off from there. Reminiscent of the theme of budding adolescence in earlier films like Black Peter by Milos Forman or Jiri Menzel's Closely Watched Trains, director Goran Paskaljevic shares his famous fellow Czechs' comic insight into the throes of first and uneasy love. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

During the frozen days of January in 1942, a group of Yugoslavian soldiers were surrounded by Germans and had to walk over the mountains and past Sarajevo in sub-zero temperatures. This film spins a fictional tale around their forced march, including scenes of the after-effects -- such as gangrenous toes removed surgically before an entire foot could become infected. Due to the subject matter, this film is a better bet for patriots and surgeons. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Also known as Who's That Singing Over There?, this bittersweet 1980 comedy was released in its native Yugoslavia as Ko To Tamo Peva. The time is 1941: a crowded bus travels over unpaved Yugoslavian terrain. In the manner of Stagecoach, the audience comes to know and grow fond of the various passengers: the lovers, the politician, the eccentrics, etc (each character is played by a well-known Yugoslav movie personality). The film's genial mood is unexpectedly shattered when a Nazi bomb scores a direct hit on the bus. The only surviving passengers are a pair of travelling gypsy musicians--hence the film's title. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Three short films made for television, dealing with the plight of isolated girls in Yugoslavia, are compiled in this film. In "Adoption," a withdrawn five-year-old girl is adopted by an attentive and loving couple, and slowly she comes out of her shell. In "Holidays," a juvenile delinquent is released to spend time at home during the winter vacation. While at home, she thinks constantly about the detention home. At the same time, she falls in love with a seriously mistreated young lad. In "Probation," a girl who is too old to remain in an orphanage copes with her need to support herself in a cold and competitive environment. Though she has professional skills, she must accept a job as a dishwasher and endure sexual harassment by the restaurant's owner. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A quote from Bertolt Brecht ends this bitter and angry war film by Sam Peckinpah: "Do not rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again." Peckinpah's intense and belligerently non-commercial work, (based on the book by Willi Heinrich), is a World War II tale told from the German perspective, following a platoon of German soldiers in the Russia of 1943, when the German Wehrmacht forces had been decimated and the Germans were retreating along the Russian front. James Coburn is Steiner, a German corporal and recipient of the Iron Cross who feels that he owes his loyalty to his family and fellow soldiers and not to Hitler and the German war machine. But when a new commander, Captain Stransky (Maximillian Schell), takes over the platoon, Steiner and Stransky come into immediate conflict. Stransky is a career soldier, the complete opposite of Steiner, and a man who pledges himself heart and soul to Hitler and the war. But he envies Steiner for having been awarded an Iron Cross and deeply desires one himself. The problem is Stransky is a complete coward and recognizes that the only way he can be awarded an Iron Cross would be to get the bitter Steiner on his side. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide