Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16556 in VHS
• Released on: 1998-08-24
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Dolby, PAL, Subtitled, Surround Sound, Widescreen
• Original language: English, Serbo-Croatian
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 124 minutes

Synopsis
A war-time drama based in modern-day Europe where two childhood friends see themselves on opposing sides. Serbo-Croat dialogue.

Customer Reviews

Watch this film again and again...you might have to.
This is a truly extraordinary film: lyrical, grotesque; beautiful and, well, bloody from start to finish. When the film opens, the hero, Milan (a Bosnian Serb) is in a military hospital. Essentially the film tells us what got him there, and what he's going to do next. A series of flashbacks, prompted by the action in the hospital, take us through Milan's past, from Tito's death in 1980, when Milan is a young boy, through to the 1992 Bosnian war in which he is a combatant. Past and present are painfully linked by Milan's childhood friendship with a Bosnian muslim: the war, of course, puts them on different sides. If you're totally ignorant about the Bosnian conflict, you may find the film a little hard to follow...if you're not, you'll love it, but perhaps be uncomfortable with its refusal to acknowledge fully the wider political circumstances of the war. It has all the strengths and weaknesses of the truly iconic war films: it's fair-minded, memorable, difficult; it's also a little macho (the few women in this film are monsters of triviality). It's maybe a little more literary than most war films; the action is very understated. You could imagine this as a stage play really. That's not to imply that it's static or slow; simply that it's not one for the action afficionados. The point of the film isn't what happens, but how it happens, and to whom. Personally, I'd have liked more of the 'why' it happens...but that would have made it a much more political film, and perhaps a weaker one. British people can be quite stupid about what happened in the former Yugoslavia...this film will, at the very least, make you care.

Thought Provoking
What do you want from a film where by its very subject nature it is going to be difficult to be comfortable with?
Pretty Village.., for me, sums up the futility and pathos of the whole of the Balkan conflict.
I've been there and worked with protaganist at both a beurocratic and 'street level'. Forget trying to lay blame as you will only tie yourself up in a mental knot. Instead, draw from the characters their honesty and apathy.
Undoubtedly, many of these actors lived through the 'real thing' How often can you get that sort of honesty in a film?
Pretty Village is a must for anyone who has any sort of opinion on the Balkan conflict.

Horror and trench humour
Watch this movie - whether student of the Balkans, war or humanity in general. This film is a masterpiece, the fate of individuals painfully played out against the backdrop of a country in turmoil. Pretty village does not attempt to offer an explanation for the conflict in Bosnia, although it has been accused of having a pro-Serbian bias given the nationality of the Director and the protaganists. Ethnicity is key to the barbarism of the conduct of the war for the individuals protrayed, however, there is no glamour to be found anywhere. Watch out for the ill-informed Western journalist - parodies with the international community are inevitable. Gruesome, shocking, distressing and yet amusing, Pretty village is among the best films to come out of the war.