Sunday, February 5, 2012

"Loveless Zoritsa" (CRNA ZORICA) A Dark Serbian Fairy Tale


All I've seen is the trailer and a few photos and my curiosity is well and truly piqued. The cinematography and directing style reminded me instantly of (the film version of) Like Water For Chocolate, which I still love, (though that is more comic and romantic), the themes brought the fairy tale ballet Giselle to mind (though the girl in this story didn't die) and the storytelling definitely has a fairy tale quality to it. It's being billed as a black comedy or a darkly comic fairy tale and I can't wait to see it. I only wish the poster was a little less "Steven King" and a little more like the images shown below.
Here's the synopsis:
Zoritsa is a village girl who bears an extraordinary curse: Since her first love got mysteriously drawn in the river, men around her die in a strange way. The raged villagers name her "the kiss of death". The case is in the hands of Mane, the stubborn, young, newcomer cop from Belgrade, temporarily working in the "haunted village". Mane doesn't believe in such "mumbo-jumbo" stories. Soon he will have to face the heavily armed villagers, but also to answer the crucial question: Is Zoritsa a serial killer or just a girl who yearns for love?
Here are some more photos from the film (they look even better and stylistically moody at full size):







And here's the beautiful trailer (not traditionally beautiful in the fairy tale sense but you'll see what I mean), complete with English subtitles.
I love the way it begins:
In our village, when "a shoe falls from the sky"
... people say "misfortune comes barefoot."

Despite that the trailer seems to have told us the whole story, including the resolution (although from the few reviews available we are promised there's more to it than this), I still want to see it. This looks like a satisfying movie, both for the storytelling and for the visuals (I don't mean "pretty" but beautifully set-up scenes and images that will stay with you in the best way. I'm guessing "darkly comic" also means a happy ending with a twist. Hopefully it's a good one.

Loveless Zoritsa was scheduled to open in Serb cinemas last month (January 2012) though IMDB says March 2012 for Serbia. I can't find release dates for the US or other English speaking countries so we'll just have to keep our eyes peeled for mention of it in months to come.
Sources for images and synopsis HERE and HERE.

2 comments:

  1. Wow, thanks for finding this! It looks like it's right up my alley.

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