It is only in the Balkans where this can happen: every emotion is absolute, people either love or hate, a person is either a brother or a foe. No-one can choose the middle, and only guns and fists can resolve a dispute. Sounds too dark, doesn’t it? Believe me, it can be fun!

Trendafil Karanfilov (Vlado Jovanovski) was born on an unlucky day. An absolute loser (absolute as anything in the Balkans), he deserts Macedonia when the civil war breaks out to escape joining the army. He leaves with his beloved wife Ruza (Zvezda Angelovska) and his mother-in-law Zumbula (Jelisaveta Sablic) to Bulgaria, where he believes they could start anew. As they stop by Blagoevgrad in the spring of 2001, Zumbula dies

The adventures begin when the carpet with the Zumbula’s is stolen on the way back to Macedonia, where Trefandil wanted to bring his late mother-in-law. Trendafil asks Santino Genovese (Adolfo Margiotta), for help. Santino is the son of Vitomir, who, caught on a train robbery fifty years ago with his blood-brother Serafim, fled to Italy and became a political refuge Vito Genovese. Meanwhile, Serafim was imprisoned in Macedonia. Vitomir never forgot about his brother and on his deathbed took his Santino’s word that he will pay the debt to Serafim through helping his sonTrendafil.

The film is authentic and ironic from the opening scenes to the very end. The producers’ creativity amazes: talking bodies in a morgue, a body folded in a carpet, a children-growing factory for selling organs, crazy doctors and policemen—the scent of the Balkan life. The producers and actors were able to present life in the Balkans with irony and sarcasm, evoking a laugh-through-tears emotion.

It is very sad the film was a jewel left unseen by AUBG students during the International Week. The 2005 Macedonian-Italian production is not a popular Hollywood movie, but it is definitely worth watching. The organizers of this event certainly deserve praise.

Photo courtesy of www.polituss.org