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Pretty Village, Pretty Flame

Pretty Village, Pretty Flame

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: super
Review: Pretty Village, Pretty Flame is about serbs living in a tunnel and they have to fight muslims. They do not show what muslims had to go throgh because of the serbs,which is unrealistic. The movie had alot of swearing and it is in serb-croat language with english subtitles. Good scenery and Good music sometimes. Oh yea my dads from montenegro bar i think and i bought the movie for him.....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BRAVO!
Review: Pretty Village, Pretty Flame provides a rare glimpse and an objective account of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1990's. The movie tackles the brutality and complexity of a war that has repeatedly fallen victim to distortion and propaganda by different parties with different agendas (both direct and indirect "players" with a high stake in the Balkans). The cast have truly outdone themselves with their performances, which are extraordinary to say the least! All the actors, without exceptions, give it their 100% and it really shows (the chemistry is AMAZING)!
Very well written and very well presented, the movie is without a doubt worth watching and one to seriously consider adding to your movie collection!


Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Pretty Disappointing
Review: Pretty Village, Pretty Flame was pretty disappointing for me. As a humanitarian worker living the past four years in former Yugoslavia, I was prepared for the outrage and shock essential to a true-life war drama. But I was also hoping for some ennobling message, or a possible glimpse of heroism, beauty, or human kindness. What I found instead was a fragmented and dehumanizing film that left me disgusted with just about everyone around me. The film is unquestionably realistic, but beyond presenting an accurate picture of life, I still expect art to elevate. If I want to see this kind of profanity, I'd do better to save my money and take a walk down the street.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The greatest anti - war movie I`ve ever seen
Review: Simply the great movie based on a true storey ,extremely realistic and extremely honest and non - prejudicial. I can say that because I`m from there and I have felt many of horrors in former Yugoslavia ! Only someone who is from that part of the world can really feel it !

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent!
Review: The movie is honestly a master piece.It talks about most important things in life, those you have no influence at..It had deeply disturbed me and it showed that in a war ALL the nations fighting are QUILTY! I didn't see anything pro-Serb in the movie and I'm shocked that some of the reviewers used this space to talk against Serbs.Just for the record, I am NO Serb.

This is one of the greatest anti-war movies I have ever seen. Strongly recommended.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Poor and dishonest
Review: The movie represents another Serbian propaganda attempt to make the war in Bosnia look like a civil war with equally responsible sides. It tries to hide Serbian atrocities against Bosnian civilians, committed during the Serbian aggression on Bosnia. Bosnians had no weapons to defend themselves against the savagery. The situation in which Serbian forces are hiding in tunnel is even more absurd knowing that Bosnian did not even have weapons. The propaganda attempt falls short of its purpose and comes across more as a farce. Fortunately, history tells us what really happened in Bosnia.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Propaganda follows us everywhere
Review: The movie was a wonderful, epic masterpiece. It is very even-handed in its portrayal of the conflict. Reading a few of these posts, however, indicates that finger-pointing is still very present in the Balkans. One mentions previously about the siege of Sarajevo, etc. Again, misinformation haunts us. Prior to the war, Serbs owned 64.5% of the territory, far more than their population would suggest. This is because Muslims were given privileges to live in cities under the Ottoman empire and Christians thus dominated the rural and suburban areas and thus most of the land. When you are told that the Serbs "stole" 16 percent more than they deserved in RS, you are being lied to; they lost 16% of their territory. In any case, the siege of Sarajevo was a true horror and there is much evidence that while Serbs were sniping innocent Muslim civilians in Sarajevo's streets, Muslim paramilitarists, chiefly under the titles of "Caco", "Celo", and "Juka" committed heinous atrocities. They forced the Christians of the city to dig trenches, set up numerous detention camps and brothels where Serbs and to a lesser degree Croats were being held and massacred hundreds of Serbs and stashed their bodies in a gorge near Sarajevo.

The fact that monsters like these: Juka, Caco, Celo, and Oric amongst the Muslims; Arkan, Legija, and Seselj amongst the Serbs, and Tuta, Stela, and Pavo amongst the Croats are still revered as heroes by their respective sides indicates that nothing in the Balkans has changed. We are in the same place as in 1990, except after the death of tens of thousands and ethnic cleansing of millions on all sides. Now the realities of inter-relgious, inter-ethnic hatred are bitterly clear to all.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not an Unbiased Portrayal
Review: This anti-war film on the Bosnian war has some very powerful moments. But claims that it is even handed in its approach to the ethnic conflict is not true. It has a distinct Serbian point of view. Within the first 4 months of the war in Bosnia, the Serbian army had taken over 70% of the territory in Bosnia and laid seige to Sarajevo, a siege that would last 3 and a half years. The Serbian army, drawn from the Serbian minority (33% of the population) was able to do this because they were heavily armed, having access to the weaponry of (what was) the fourth largest army in Europe, the Yugoslav National Army. The Bosnian government on the other hand, had to rely on weapons that were smuggled in. This is not the war one sees in "Pretty Village Pretty Flames." The situation has been reversed, in the film it is the Serb army that is under siege. Their enemies, the Bosnian Muslims, appear to be equally well armed in the film.

Another instance that depicts a particular point of view is in the beginning of the film when they claim that the war begins with a shooting of a Serb at a wedding in Sarajevo. This is a Serbian point of view. It is true that a Serb man was murdered by Muslims in Sarajevo, but it is generally held that the war in Bosnia began when Serbian paramilitary troops entered Zvornik and forced 40,000 muslims to leave or be killed. The Seige of Sarajevo began when a peace march was fired upon by Serbian gunman in the neighborhood of Grbavica.

This is a good film, nonetheless, but it is wrong to assume that you are seeing an unbiased view, even if this Serbian made film is critical of Serbian propaganda and crimes committed in Bosnia.

To get a better understanding of the breakup of Yugoslavia, watch "Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation" this was a five part series made in cooperation with the BBC and narrated by Christiane Amanpour.

Another film which is of interest, is "The Perfect Circle" or "Zavrseni Krug" which was filmed in Sarajevo a few months after the end of the fighting. It was made by a Sarajevo director, Ademovic, I think, but may not be available on video. It depicts the seige from the point of view of those who lived through it, including the director.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: GRUELING
Review: This film is a patriotic portrayal of the breakup of Serbia. Two close friends, one a Serb and the other a Muslim Bosnian, end up on opposite sides of the war from one another. The majority of the film takes places inside a tunnel. It is a grueling picture and does not exonerate anyone from blame. You will be best served if you watch this film after reviewing basic information about the history and breakup of Yugoslavia. Otherwise some references may be a bit obscure and may not make much sense.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Understanding what...........
Review: This film is great, ok it clearly has not been made with a Hollywood budget but thats besides the point. I first saw this film in Bosnia when it was released and it caused quite a stir. The translation into English on this DVD is at best pathetic, prehaps that is why so many of our self appointed Balkan historians in the USA have missed the point of this movie, its not the war according to CNN, its made by people who understand the history and the culture of the region because they live in it and experience it first hand. The film seeks to draw out the contrast of a people who at one time lived together in brotherhood and unity as Yugoslavians who shared the same childhood experiences together, listened to the same music and went to the same schools and now find themselves in a conflict that is as much about nationalism as it is religion. More importantly the film portrays the normal people of Bosnia as just that normal human beings who are caught up and activly involved in a civil war, be they Croat, Muslim or Serb. A welcome relief from the typical 'bad Serb' properganda normally spouted by people who have never even been to Bosnia let alone live there. The viewer is shown how the thin veneer of civilisation is soon stripped away in such a complicated and bloody conflict. And the film also has the typical humor of the people of Bosnia that was evident even in such dark times. Open your mind and let this film challange the common misconceptions of the war in Bosnia.


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