TRI MUSKARCA MELITE ZGANJER (1998)
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2004
Standards of 1990s Croatian cinema industry were so low that the
best Croatian film of that period simply had to look as different from
average Croatian film as possible. That task didn't require exotic
locations, CGI or foreign actors. Being of different genre was enough,
and most of Croatian films were, in one way or another, dramas
related to 1991-95 war or country's traumatic past. The first Croatian
film to deal with present and primarily designed to entertain the
audience was TRI MUSKARCA MELITE ZGANJER, 1998 romantic
comedy directed by Snjezana Tribuson.
Protagonist of the film is Melita Zganjer (played by Mirjana Rogina),
woman who desperately tries to lose weight. This proves to be very
difficult because she works in a pastry shop. Unlike her man-eating
roommate Visnja (played by Suzana Nikolic), she only dreams about
love and spends all her free time watching South American soap
opera "Slave of Love". The man of his dreams is much closer than she
thinks, though. Janko (played by Goran Navojec), young man who
delivers pastry, loves Melita but is too shy to express his feelings. In
the meantime, Eva (played by Sanja Vejnovic), policewoman and
another of Melita's roommates, tries to set her up with one of her
colleagues. Those efforts fail, but Melita's dreams seems to come true
with Antonio Mulero (played by Filip Sovagovic), "Slave of Love"
star who arrived to Zagreb to shoot a feature film.
There were some critics complaining about lack of originality in the
script for TRI MUSKARCA MELITE ZGANJER. Plot about
overweight woman trying to find love looked borrowed from P.J.
Hogan's MURIEL'S WEDDING while other critics found similarities
with Rajko Grlic's 1980s film U RALJAMA ZIVOTA. Yet, in the
context of 1990s Croatia all that looked refreshing. After plenty of
films dealing with Croatian past, TRI MUSKARCA MELITE
ZGANJER was first one to unapologetically deal with Croatian
present. The only trace of Croatia's recent troubles can be glimpsed in
the costumes and props on the film set visited by protagonist.
Tribuson is more concerned with another force that shapes Croatia's
collective psyche - South American soap operas. Far from ridiculing
those TV shows, this film pays homage to them by having Croatian
actors delivering huge sections of dialogue in Spanish. To do that,
those actors had to invest more effort than usually displayed in
Croatian movies, and the quality of the acting itself launches this film
high above the average. Directing, on the other hand, leaves
something to be desired, especially in the scenes depicting Melita's
kitschy world. But Tribuson, for the most part, handles the plot and
characters very well. The film is not hilarious, but is funny enough to
be entertaining. And this is something that very few 1990s Croatian
films managed to do. For that reason only TRI MUSKARCA MELITE
ZGANJER deserves much more praise than its reputation,
overshadowed by more serious films of the decade, might indicate.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
Review written on April 11th 2004
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in
Croatian
http://www.ofcs.org - Online Films Critics Society
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