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Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(from the 2008 Palm Springs International Film Festival)

Director: Ognjen Svilicic
Starring: Emir Hadzihafizbegovic, Armin Omerovic, Marie Baeumer, Barbara Pripic, Jens Muenchow

When Armin, the son of a blabbermouth and the character for which the film is named, has shared the screen but not uttered a single word to the ten minute mark of the movie, interest gives way to intrigue as to how the cherubic-faced accordion-playing kid will choose to use his energies.

Armin and his father arrive at their destination – auditions for young actors for a German movie about the war in Bosnia – but their hopes for this trip to the “big city” of Zagreb are initially shattered when, on the basis of Armin’s photograph, he’s labeled as “too old” and not even called in to audition the lines he’s rehearsed. Matters are made much worse by the fact that his father takes the rejection to heart, and his love for his son is momentarily confused for the stage parenting that Americans rebuke for granted.

The film, in its simplicity, presents a great distinction between the war-ravaged nations and the westernized societies that sit on or within their borders. In the film’s world, the acting gig, the dream, is the very opportunity to escape a world of tough experiences, wrongdoings and emptiness, and is arguably not itself the soul-less fame-hunting often prevalent in the machinery of big budget entertainment enterprise. The film reminds us with little fanfare that some kids are denied reasons to smile, and may not even know how.

Seemingly shot with the realism delivered by available light and bookended by street shots of rubbled Bosnia, the film is predominantly set amidst the stark refurbishings of a chain hotel, and eloquently provides us with an honest slice of life, a father-son love story both simplified and complicated by a lack of money but no lack of heart.

Although able to be distilled to the common theme of provincial pokies out of their element in the big city, Svilicic’s feature, with many thanks to his actors, turns on its head the cliché inherent in that formula to paint a portrait both effective and profound.

Chosen by Croatia to represent that nation in the competition for Best Foreign Film at the 2008 Oscars, the film has already picked up deserved laurels in countries as diverse as Portugal, France, South Africa, Germany and Bulgaria.