Zivi i mrtvi (2007) User Reviews

***

[ot_lowrider · 3/10 · 30 June 2008]

I saw this movie on film festival and it was pretty pointless from my opinion! First off all scenario is pretty bad! There is no any special action except people running through wood! First of all when I've heard that movie have (or at least should have) two crossing stories from Second World War and Yugoslavian Civil War and that lasts 90 minutes I was amazed, but after watching the movie even those 90 minutes were too long. In both scenes there is just running through woods. What I liked is production. The way camera moves through scenes and from which angles scene rolls is pretty good. And that is only thing I pretty much enjoyed. I also must say that Im disappointed in acting. Im not very familiar with new generation of Croatian actors but all actors in this movie are pretty much amateurs. There is much more better actors in Croatia and movies too. Im not even sure how this movie get on festival!?

The best Croatian war movie

[toninobeman · 9/10 · 8 April 2008]

This movie is phenomenal, and, dare I say, the best Croatian war movie ever filmed since it's independence. Croatia has gone through a rough cultural period after the war. Some of it's films were either politically indoctrinated, or just simply bad, but be it as it may, Croatias filmmakers lost respect that they once held as a part of the Yugoslavian film makers. Little by little, people just discarded all Croatian on celluloid as "bad", and would rather indulge in an afternoon Holywoodly brainwash, in opposition to searching for the "needle in the stack of hay" of the Croatian movie. Needless to say, this movie brings it all home. Superb script and out of this world directing, followed by some tremendously good acting by Filip Sovagovic and Velibor Topic just might bring back our faith in the Croatian cinematography. Little mistakes in the casting were visible (the Ustase commanders were terrible), but still, this movie deserves nothing less of a pure

9/10

Unrealistic picture of WW2

[mila271 · 1/10 · 25 October 2008]

This movie is just another of those from Croatia, which is trying to picture WW2 wrongly. First of all, there is 2 parallel stories, one from WW2 and another one from recent war in former Yugoslavia. Scenario is weak, based (and not justified) on "ghost" - although there are no real ghost here...Everything is unrealistic (at least the costumes are done well). Group of Croatian domobrani, with its ustashi captain is trying to fight partisans. We can not see the partisans. Battle scenes are weakly done. Nothing is seems to be good enough here. I just wonder why Velibor Topic accepted this role, story is weak and there is not really space fot him to show how good actor he is. Other acting is also poor and under-average. Croatian ustashi regime in WW2 (supported by Germany),killed and slaughtered thousands of innocent people (mainly Serbs and Jews) yet here it is not even mentioned, ustashi crimes are forgotten here. Ustashi and domobrani are just the group of armed people running through woods, and at the end we see "ghosts"?! No real end, no real story. I gave 1/10

Absurdity of war and sameness of wars

[qigath · 10/10 · 13 December 2009]

I saw this film at the 2007 Sarajevo Film Festival. It shows the parallels between the Bosnian war and the partisan struggle of World War Two. Especially poignant scenes are numerous. For example, when the patrol has killed everyone at an outpost they've come across. A member of the patrol remarks that one of the dead they killed went to school with him. At another point, the patrol look across a field and see the campfires of the long-dead World War Two partisans -- or was it fire eating the souls of the dead, as described in the Koran? Double entendre. The final scene has the departed soldiers standing together, the dead partisans from World War Two and the dead member of the patrol in the Bosnian War, standing together in the graveyard. This movie is a masterpiece of design and of photography.

The Horrors of War

[dk777 · 11 March 2021]

A great movie that deserves more attention.

This is a war drama that intertwines two stories - one from the 1993 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the other that takes place in the same place but in 1943.

Somewhere in Bosnia in 1993, a group of HVO soldiers was assigned to hold one of the most important positions towards the Serbian forces, in the hills near the hunting barracks.

But on the same evening, after arriving at the position, a Croat-Muslim conflict breaks out behind them, leaving them cut off from their comrades. Then they have to sneak through Serbian and Muslim positions to get to salvation - Black Water.

The film is brilliantly directed, the action scenes are great and the film is truly visually impressive. Sound is an extremely important component in the film and here the director used it brilliantly.

Anyone who has heard live rifle shots, and especially rifles such as those used in the Croatian War of Independence (Homeland War), knows that the sounds in this film are truly realistic.

The atmosphere is sinister and the tension intensifies with each passing moment, and the characters are interesting. Everything in the film has a purpose and everything makes sense in the end.

The film was shot on locations in the municipalities of Uskoplje and Prozor-Rama, and a small part in Zagreb.

An interesting, atmospheric and visually impressive film.

This could (should) have been much better...

[buiger · 4/10 · 5 April 2013]

I tend to completely agree with ot_lowrider from Serbia, this movie doesn't really make much sense. Yes, it is an anti-war movie, and yes some of the atmosphere is rather realistic, but that is not nearly enough to redeem the grossly lacking script. There is no story, no sense whatsoever in what is happening (I understand that is exactly the point the movie was trying to make, but I find it is not nearly enough).

To make things worse, somewhere half way into the movie, the filmmakers insert some sort of supernatural powers into the happenings which makes this film ridiculous at times. What do ghosts have to do with what was supposed to be a realistic anti-war movie? Give me a break!

Out of hatred

[kolo-5 · 9/10 · 16 April 2010]

I believe Mila's review is politically charged and don't fit to this movie. I've seen it and it is one of the best movies I've seen about ex-Yugoslavian wars. It makes out the point that there is no way to escape these wars. It's a circle killing everybody at the end. It goes on for centuries. The way war is depicted is so realistic, the director, Milic, has been himself in the war. There is no single woman in the screen, because it is a war movie, and no romance can fit in. All the craziness of the war is there, driving those soldiers mad. The craft of doing that movie is amazing. No wonder why Croatian school of film is probably the best in the Balkans. If you can, go see that movie. And you wan't need to see any other war movie in your life.

good movie

[balkanskikralj · 10/10 · 22 June 2022]

I really like the film especially because it is the only film or one of the few that talks about the HVO and talks about the Ustashas up close, it is something we all want to know more about, so it is very good that there is a film like this.