Murina (2022)

Direction: Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic
Country: Croatia

Murina is a fish, also known as Mediterranean moray, that commonly bites its own flesh in a desperate attempt to set itself free from the fishermen’s hooks. The parallel with the 16-year-old Julija, the main character of this tense psychological Croatian drama filled with toxic masculinity and an urge for freedom, is blatant. 

Julija (Gracija Filipović) lives with her rude, authoritarian father, Ante (Leon Lucev), and disenchanted mother, Nela (Danica Curcic), on a small island in Croatia, a deceiving paradise where the summer heat is part of the uncomfortable setting. The arrival of Javi (New Zealander Cliff Curtis), a wealthy foreigner and friend of the family, not only awakens her rebellious and femininity sides but also makes her fight fiercely for her unvoiced dreams. 

Whereas the moody father is a punisher whose rudeness and aggressiveness is far greater than his care for the family, the visitor’s cultivation offers a different vision of life, an unthinkable hope, and a new meaning in terms of human relationships. Humiliation and desperate situations lead to desperate measures and, therefore, confrontation is inevitable. 

With the clear and crisp tone evinced here, it’s clear that director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic is a force to follow. This solid first feature, based on her 2017 short film Into the Blue, was executive produced by Martin Scorsese and was crowned with the Camera D’Or at Cannes. In conclusion, Murina is an impressive story of emancipation carried by convincing performances and well-drawn characters that bring authenticity to it.

Priest's Children (2013)

Directed by: Vinko Bresan
Country: Croatia

Review: This Croatian comedy addresses sex, birth control, and religion in a small Adriatic Island where the deaths are in much more number than the births. The cause of this problem is Petar, a newsagent who sells condoms of every kind and knows every single affair that was happening in the village. Tormented with guilt for killing babies even before they were born, Petar becomes a sort of informer when confesses his sins to priest Fabijan whose ingenious strategy to increase births consisted in piercing the condoms before selling them. By mixing humor and drama, “Priest’s Children” aimed to be a soft, well intentioned, and good-hearted film, touching in sensible aspects such as abortion, infertility, and even pedophilia, but its jokes failed to impress, with most of them being uninspired, unintelligent, or too obvious to be funny. Bresan’s narrow vision confined the film to such a closed subject that withdrew all the possible interest we might feel in its characters. Besides, the pace adopted since the beginning made me feel indifferent for what was coming next. Actor Kresimir Mikic, almost a Croatian copy of Adrien Brody, wasn’t bad in his role, but in truth, this religious look at life's conception turned out to be messy and undistinguished in many aspects.

Sonja And The Bull (2012)

Directed by: Vlatka Vorkapic
Country: Croatia

Review: Vlatka Vorkapic wrote and directed “Sonja and The Bull” after two decades on documentaries, shorts and TV series. Sonja is a fierce activist whose interview against bull fighting given to a local TV, upset the inhabitants of a Croatian countryside village. Two of the villagers then decided to make a very strange bet, which required Sonja’s presence to confront a bull. One bettor ordered his son to fetch her and as expected, after the initial problematic contact, a physical attraction starts to grow between them. The villagers' sneer created good impression at first, and even Sonja seemed to be a well build character, but all these expectations vanished in a blink of an eye. After 20 minutes, the story degenerated into dull situations and predictable moves, never to recover again. Goronja, the bull, ended up being the most interesting protagonist in a colorless story that failed to engage.