Stefan Pantic
The movie Balkan Spy (Balkanski spijun) was released in 1984. and to me it is the best movie wrote by Dusan Kovacevic, and the competition is great ("Ko to tamo peva", "Maratonci trce pocasni krug", "Sabirni Centar" are a few of his other films). I will not go so far in saying that this is the best comedy of all time but certainly it is the best tragicomedy full of black-humor. One of the main characters Jakovljevic (Bora Todorovic) moves into the house of Ilija (Bata Stojkovic) after a long time working in France. Ilija gets a call from the police and has a talk with a inspector about Jakovljevic. From that moment Ilija is convinced that Jakovljevic is a spy working for "them". The cast is made from some of the best Serbian actors of all time: Danilo 'Bata' Stojkovic, Bora Todorovic, Mira Banjac, Sonja Savic, Bata Zivojinovic, Mica Tomic and Croatian legend Zvonko Lepetic as Djuro Cvorovic. It has awesome dialogue, great characters, and the cast is superb. 10/10Just legendary. You gotta watch it!
luic
The movie is not funny at all (might have been at its release time for the local audiences) and definitely not a comedy. At most is an ironic story.After a while it gets really boring and doesn't even have other qualities such as beautiful photography, clever sequences, etc.The movie is a criticism of the big brother surveillance paranoia that victimised the socialist countries and the absurdity of a repressive system. As such it has its value but nowadays it is anachronistic and out of context. It might still have some meaning for Serbian people who suffered with stalinism or might still have shadows of stalinism in their everyday lives today, but this is my guess based on the other reviews.The other movie, KO TO TAMO PEVA of the same director is a different story. Its message is universal and timeless.
bee-17
This is a movie I sought out because of it's ridiculously high ranking on IMDb's comedy genre list. It was definitely a watchable movie, but I found it to be a bit too much of a jumble of political/social commentary, slapstick, absurdity, and violence. The last half hour was especially cringe-worthy, as the main character descends into despair, sadism and ultra-violence. Watching these latter scenes, I found myself thinking about how a Serbian audience in 1984 would have received them. Would they be cringing, too, or would they be laughing? Given the history of the region in the 90's, I'm afraid of the answer.But, it's always nice to see a film from within the communist era that reflects upon the communist apparatus and how it affects daily life, especially in such a candid manner. This film must have really irked some of the people in charge! For searing political commentary that is rolling-on-the-floor hilarious, I highly recommend Milos Forman's The Firemen's Ball.
umamahesvare
A lot of lame movies these days are going to international film festivals,we all are asking ourselves what happened to Serbian movie,and this film is reminder that we once had a good directors and for NO.! good screenplays! Movie is intelligent and funny ,like Dusan Kovacevic's work always is. He mocks the regime and at the same time works with really serious subjects and ask serious questions .. I would recommend this movie to anyone . Ilija Cvorovic is a man in his middle age.One day he gets a phone call from the police.He is called to be examined about his neighbor and subtenant . He is afraid of what will the police ask him.But they don't ask him much,they just want to know who is he ,because he just came from France. After that conversation Ilija begin to imagine things ,he thinks that his subtenant is a spy and that kind of thinking led to lot of funny scenes...