Croat-a-rama
Armin
The inaugural 2009 Croatian Film Festival arrives at ACMI with passionate and precariously honest stories of Croatian life.
The season opens tonight with Armin, chosen by Croatia to represent the nation in the Best Foreign Film category at the 2008 Academy Awards. The story begins with Ibro and his 14-year-old son Armin catching a bus out of their remote Bosnian village for the 'big smoke' of Zagreb. Ibro, somewhat desperately, is coercing his bashful son to audition for a role in a German film about the Bosnian war.
Both father and son are valiant in their anxious hopes to please each other - while Armin retreats into himself with the rising toll of disappointments on their trip, Ibro is propelled relentlessly in the desire to fulfil their dreams.
Described by A.O. Scott of The New York Times as "funny and warm as well as sorrowful", Armin is a poignant observation of the hopes and illusions simpatico with a father-son relationship. The film will be followed by the opening night black-tie cocktail event at 9.15pm in The Cube.
Other festival highlights include No One's Son, the tale of a 36-year-old crippled war veteran haunted by a ghost from the country's communist past; What's a Man Without a Moustache?, an entertainingly absurd rom com about a young widow who falls in love with an impoverished priest; The Happy Child, a light-hearted rockumentary exploring the music revolution which shook the former country, and the 1970 film widely regarded as one of the best Croatian films of all time: He Who Sings Means No Harm. It's the charming story of a middle class family in 1930s Zagreb as seen through the eyes of a six-year-old boy.
Take a trip to the 2009 Croatian Film Festival and see the world from a Croatian vantage point. Dobrodosli.
Published Thursday, 5 November 2009
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