Bal-can-can

Laughter, Tears, Fear, Passion… And a Granny Wrapped In a Carpet!

 

 

“Writer-helmer Darko Mitrevski keeps pushing the envelope… The cynical, hallucinatory, modern Pilgrim’s Progress is a trip, with memorably out-there sequences sure to build a cult rep among adventuresome cineastes”.
(Dennis Harvey, “Variety”)
“Extremely funny and corrupted, BALCANCAN stands out as a mouthful of fresh air amongst the stereotypes of modern cinema.”
(SFX - U.K.)
“It’s so fast you can’t even blink. One of the most original titles I have seen in recent years.”
(Jeffrey Summers, “Blue Films Magazine”)
“Hysterically funny dark comedy, throbbing with vitality… Darko Mitrevski is a director who could soon elbow Emir Kusturica aside from the snug position of the Balkan genius.”
(Stas Tyrkin, “Mane?”)
“The film is shot flawlessly, paradoxically, cleverly, without any strain, and is based on a spectacular screenplay. It is possible that we are witnessing the appearance of yet another Balkan wunderkind…”
(Diliara Tasbulatova, “Itogi”)
“It’s an unbelievable movie surprise, and its opening sequence is one of the best I’ve seen in the last few years!”
(Tina Mari?i?, “24 sata”)

Story

Once upon a time (in 1950’s, to be more precise), in a land called Macedonia (in those times part of so-called “Tito’s Yugoslavia”), there were two brave blood-brothers named Vitomir and Serafim. These two dynamic and charming gentlemen shared high risks and very little profit which they obtained by smuggling goods from the capitalistic West into socialist East. But one day their growing fame raised the curiosity of an evil man named Shefket Ramadani, a powerful bloodthirsty king of underground whose name sent shivers down many-a-spine. He asked them to take part to a train robbery, granting them eternal richness… Only too late our heros realized that this “easy money” operation is in fact a set-up! So, Serafim got caught by the police, while Vitomir made a cowardly escape, diving into Adriatic Sea and swimming his way to the coasts of Italy, where he proclaimed himself as a political refugee and adopted the fictitious name of Vito Genovese. Half a century went by. The old and wealthy Don Genovese is breathing his last wish into the ear of his son Santino: “I have a debt to pay, my son!” he whispers “I have betrayed my blood-brother and left him to die in prison… But I’ve heard that he left a son behind him. If that boy ever finds himself in trouble, my dear Santino, be there to help him, be there to pay for the sins of your dead father!”. In a meantime, a civil war is raging into Macedonia. A poor cowardly loser named Trendafil Karanfilov, son of the deceased Serafim, is fleeing his home-town to avoid joining the local army. Together with his wife Ru?a he’s hurriedly packing all sorts of goods (including her wicked mother Zumbula) into their family car, destination neighboring Bulgaria. But that spring of 2001 was too hot, incredibly hot… and the old granny Zumbula perishes due to the heat! Faced with the bureaucracy in a foreign land, with an old corpse that begins to rot, Trendafil decides to smuggle Zumbula’s body back to Macedonia, wrapped up in a carpet. And so he has done… but the carpet was stolen on the way home! That day, a phone rings in Santino’s night club: there is his blood-brother Trendafil, the one he has never seen, asking for help! The voice of his dead father Vitomir echoes in his head, so Santino Genovese hurries from Italy to provide the promised help - and the two of them start their quest for a carpet with a dead granny wrapped in it. From antic Greece to Serbia and Montenegro, over the mountains of Bosnia to the fields of Kosovo, all-over the nine hell circles of the Balkan criminal underground. Madness and sorrow, life and death, tears and laugh, in one of the most thrilling adventures on this side of the planet: BALCANCAN!

Trailer

FESTIVALS & AWARDS

  • 27th Moscow International Film Festival - Moscow, Russia (Special Mention of the Film Critic’s Guild of Russia)
  • 24th Filmfest Muenchen - Munich, Germany
  • 7th Motovun Film Festival - Motovun, Croatia (Award “From A to A” for the Best Film In the South-East European Region)
  • 14th Raindance Film Festival - London, UK
  • 4th Capetown World Cinema Festival - Capetown, South Africa
  • 17th Palm Springs International Film Festival - Palm Springs, California, USA
  • 16th CINEQUEST - San Jose, California, USA
  • 7th Balkan Black Box - Berlin, Germany
  • 39th WorlFest - Houston, Texas, USA
  • 37th Nashville Film Festival - Nashville, Tennessee, USA
  • 20th DC International Film Festival - Washington, DC, USA
  • Espoo Cine 17th International Film Festival - Espoo, Finland