Freaktana
A Major Disappointment
Dynamixor
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
Tayloriona
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Alice Wakefield
I have a problem with Eastern European cinema. I avoid it because I expect it to depict a gloomy, dreary, depressing, dark and dirty world which is so foreign to my culture that I can't relate to it.Although *Reservni Deli* was all that (and seedy too), it had me interested, partly because I had seen *Pod Njenim Oknom* (AKA *Beneath Her Window*) a few hours earlier, and I wondered what else the Slovenians could do.The film began by reinforcing my stereotypes of Eastern Europe. There was old footage of a Soviet nuclear power plant. Two Slovenians, one older, jaded and callous, the other younger, sensitive, a rookie to the people-smuggling trade, truck dis-empowered souls through the last leg of their journey to the EU. Conditions in the back of the truck were of course disgusting, inhumane or both. When the cops were around, the music was spooky and I was conflicted as to who to feel scared for. I think I was most scared for the babies who cried when everyone was trying to be quiet and avoid discovery.The only characters are the people smugglers, their clients/victims, and a potential girlfriend of the rookie, Rudi. She really only serves to highlight Rudi's slow corruption. The only characters I was sympathetic to were the people being smuggled, who show a glimpse of their life's trajectory as they travel through Slovenia.I was hypnotised by the corruption and increasing cynicism of Rudi, and the correlating lightening and increasing humanity of Ludvik, his older partner.Of most interest to me was the film's commentary on globalisation and the unionisation of Europe. Ludvik says, 'They all want to reach that f***ing Europe... I hope that as long as I'm alive we don't join f***ing Europe... A united Europe was Hitler's project.' Some irony follows, but it reminded me of the concept of Americanisation and the attempts of Southern and Central Americans to make it to the USA, the professed land of freedom.I wonder if the West's current embracing of nuclear power was in the director/script-writer's mind at the time of making the movie? I was pleasantly surprised by *Beneath Her Window* and liked this even more. I'll certainly be thinking about it for longer.
croat-hr
First I would like to apologize for my possible bad English... I was reading some reviews of this movie, and I must say I was disappointed. There are some very good critics from London, and I don't know from wherever, but people in Slovenia don't like it? Why not? I think this is one of the best new Slovenian movies. Because if i'm honest almost all new Slovenian movies are crap. Old movies (from 60. or so) were ten times better, and still are, they could easily compete with all the Hollywood and other films. Offcourse, we were not independent yet at that time, we were part of Yugoslavia, so those aren't technically even Slovenian movies... So almost all Slovenian movies are crap... But not this one. This is just perfect example what a movie should look like. It has a really sad story, but not the mail plot, what is interesting in this movie, is that it shows what live in Slovenia looks like (especially in small towns). This is a film that I think more people should see, and it doesn't mather from where you are. The story is about 2 characters who make illegal transports of people from foreign countries to Italy-Europe through Slovenia. I wont tell you the rest of what story is about, cause I don't want to ruin it for you. But you really should see it!
pc95
This little foreign film set in former Yugoslavia runs a much longer than its actual 84 min or so. It paints an descriptive and bleak picture of a Eastern Euro lifestyle involved in petty crime of immigrant tracking. The 2 lead characters Rudi the older mentor and interesting in their friendship and the way they disdain what their country has become. The background and settings themselves seem brooding and run-down. One of the big character developments relates to that with a Nuclear Plant in town and the lead character's life has taken a real turn for the worst. The film is not particularly pleasant with an air of despair, but it is at heart character driven and gritty. Worth a rental if you like foreign independent films.
dima-12
Damjan Kozole is the veteran Slovenian punk rocker whose recent film career seemed quite hectic. `Rezervni deli` is his first full success. It covers the sad fate of two immigrant smugglers who operate in Slovenia and transfer immigrants into Italy. These characters live in Krsko, home of the only nuclear plant in Former Yugoslavia. Their world is plagued by impotence, cancer, guilt, dirt and absence of love. Some vaguely developed angles of the story tend to seem more interesting than the main plot Kozole opted for but in the end we end up wit a well-made, very gritty drama that kicks most of the Former Yugoslav competition out of sight.
