Ehirerapp Waste of time

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Dotbankey A lot of fun.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Mastur Batsler Nobody really cares that a low life gets killed, he isn't even shown in the movie, we are not supposed to care about him. Although we don't care about the witness as well, not supposed to by the director. And we continue with the same blunt tone set in the very beginning of the movie. The coldness towards the witness is surprising and unrealistic, no emotions shown throughout the movie. Let's talk about the retrospective jumps. The story is one short happening over a couple of days timeline viewed from a few people's perspectives, which are overlapping as people are usually at the same place at the same time . Movie is kind of slow paced so this raises the movie dynamic greatly, unfortunately it gets a little bit confusing towards the end, and scenes are repeated too many times that it gets irritating. Except the main story line we get to see some pretty cool but unfortunately short retrospective, they don't add much to the story just to introduce characters and show us how they got here, (victim's and witness's unfortunately aren't shown).The message? I don't think there is one, every character is a horrible human being except one that is just passive. You wait for something and get very empty ending. Like some politically correct story that still intended (by showing a few Croatian soldiers, while defending against Serbian invasion, as not so diabolic but cold and heartless people), and managed, to get people angry.To be absolutely fair the reason to watch this movie is to see debut of a promising star Melody, her "out of this world" stunning performance alone is worth the watch. She was a baby then, but she is a babe now.

goodhikers Well done film about the Third Balkan War in the 1990s, in this case, Croats vs. Serbs. The film takes a single incident--the killing of a Serb civilian who lives in a predominantly Croat town during the war--by Croat soldiers. This starts the plot rolling. Soon layer after layer of the true story is revealed as the movie shifts backs to certain scenes and repeats them from a slightly different angle and perspective. In this particular film, the technique is used very effectively without being annoying or pretentious.I agree with many of the other reviewers--an underrated film that should be watched. I give it 8 stars.Note: as of Sep 2013, this film is available on Netflix Instant View as well as DVD. Glad I found it.

Chad Shiira The first thing you notice about "Svjedoci" is that the camera moves. This filmmaker makes extensive use of tracking shots in the opening scene to follow a convoy of military vehicles, and a car that carries our "witnesses". This ain't your father's, or your father's father's European art film; "Svjedoci" plays like a homage to the film-making aesthetics of Brian DePalma, or in a broader sense, the aesthetics of contemporary American film-making. And sure enough, inside a Croatian watering hole, the walls are decorated with movie posters; most notably: "Rocky" and "Jaws", two films that are distinctly mainstream and American. The police procedural, that's the genre "Svjedoci" employs to tell its story about being a good, moral Croatian. To accomplish this mammoth feat with an American sensibility strikes me as being mildly subversive, since American isn't always good and moral.A Serbian man is shot. Croat soldiers pulled the trigger and Barbir(Drazen Kuhn) is the detective willing to prosecute the young men against the wishes of the town. "Svjedoci" wants to make the point about killing in uniform being no less despicable than killing in civilian clothes. We see the trigger-man in both guises. The trigger-man's brother is the moral compass who tries to straighten out his vigilant sibling, which diffuses the narrative somewhat, because we thought Barbir was the story's appointed moral compass. As they say, too many moral compasses spoil the soup. In other words, one hero is more than enough.Somebody is in the shed. The fourth witness is in the shed. Wasting away to nothing, presumably, since nobody is glimpsed providing the prisoner with any sustenance. While the filmmaker occupies himself with all his narrative pyrotechnics(he's no doubt seen "Memento"), "Svjedoci" underestimates the power in getting to know the enemy as a person while his/her fate is being determined. One brother treats this Serb as a human being, while the other brother treats his enemy as collateral damage. Should a child, "Svjedoci" asks the viewer, pay for the sins of the father, who is a collaborator for the enemy? To my surprise, "Svjedoci" isn't some grim movie about life during wartime in Croatia. It's an entertainment first, message second, sort of movie.

strider_strider Film Svjedoci (Witnesses) by Vinko Brešan is from Croatia. Brešan has won countless prizes and awards in his own country, and with Svjedoci he has been nominated for the Oscar for best foreign film. Already during production, the movie triggered a fierce debate in Croatia: set against the war in Yugoslavia, this young director portrays the fatal psychological impacts of war and violence in three parallel tales. The film is based on motifs from the bestseller The Plaster Sheep by Jurica Pavicic; which was inspired by a true story from 1991 when a group of Croatian soldiers brutally killed a Serbian family. Witnesses consists of three stories, each beginning at the same moment –the moment of murder investigation, and each story gives a new point of view of what actually happened.The film focuses on the idea of losing your soul in a war. Even during production, some of the more conservative town—councilors and some war veterans' organizations protested because of the topic of this film. The film has also been publicly cried out against, because one of the main characters is played by a popular Serbian actress Mirjana Karanovic. Recommendations to observe: First scene (lasting, photography, and exterior). All blow-ups and actors face expressions. Bad point: "Happy" and heroic end of the movie