NAUSIKAJA (1996)
A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 2002
No good deed ever goes unpunished. The author of this review was reminded of that proverb while watching NAUSIKAJA, 1996 Croatian horror drama written, produced and directed by Vicko Ruic. I had decided to go to cinema and watch this film after reading articles about Vicko Ruic and his co-producer Zeljko Vukmirica being forced to put their own homes as collaterals in order to make this film. Since tens of thousands of Croatians had actually lost their homes during the war, I felt really bad about two people suffering the same fate simply for their own love of movies. So, I decided to make symbolic gesture and bought the ticket for this movie.
The plot of the film is set in Zagreb 1939. While the rest of the world worries about upcoming WW2, Matija Remetin (played by Igor Serdar), young drama student from Dalmatia, worries about something more mundane - finding a cheap place to stay. He hits the jackpot in the form of Marija Slajner (played by Nada Gacesic- Livakovic), landlady willing to give him room for free. The catch is in the fact that three previous tenants committed suicide, so police inspector Stevovic (played by Mustafa Nadarevic) fears that the young man would be next. But Remetin is determined to remain in his room and gradually becomes obsessed with the neighbour in the house next door - beautiful and mysterious girl (played by Maja Nekic) he starts to call Nausikaja.
The script for the film is based on the works of Hans Ewers (1871- 1943), author best known for introducing horror genre to German literature. Unfortunately, the only thing resembling horror in NAUSIKAJA comes from realisation that this film was actually made. Ruic obviously spent all of his creative energy in a lame attempt to give this film some kind of period "feel" - apart from production design and costumes there are numerous and quite pointless scenes featuring Communist sympathisers being arrested and beat up by poetry-loving secret police, Jews in waiting halls and Nazis showing off in public places. The story and characters got lost, and the acting was terrible, especially in the case of Igor Serdar who couldn't decide whether to have his character speak with Dalmatian or native Zagabrian accent. Maja Nekic in the role of femme fatale spends most of her screen time looking silly behind the window (which is somewhat understandable, since the actress had experienced well- publicised struggle with heroin addiction during the production of the film). But the worst thing about NAUSIKAJA is Ruic's obvious inability to grasp the importance of pacing in modern cinema. There is hardly any scene which isn't overlong and where characters won't try to compensate the lack of substance with "meaningful" silences. So, all those who want to know what was so wrong about cinema industry in 1990s Croatia would find few examples as eye-opening as NAUSIKAJA.
RATING: 2/10 (-)
Review written on September 26th 2002
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in Croatian http://www.purger.com/users/drax/reviews.htm - Movie Reviews in English http://www.ofcs.org - Online Film Critics Society
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