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Ordinary People

dir. Vladimir Perisic / Serbia, France, Switzerland, Netherlands 2008 / 78’

subtitles: Polish and English

Panorama $9.99, 12 Lotus, Beeswax, Blue Beard, Breathless, Collectress, Ecce Momo!, Hooked, I am Not Your Friend + I Will Not Be Your Friend, Katalin Varga, Machan, My Only Sunshine, My Sweet Shirin, North, Nymph, Ordinary People, Palermo Shooting, Parque vía, Rachel Getting Married, Ricky, Schottentor, Seraphine, Stella, The Northern Land, The Other One, The Rat Herb, The Visitor, The White Ribbon, Two Lines, Under the Tree, Winter Silence Section index

Cast

Relja Popovic, Boris Isakovic, Miroslav Stevanovic, Miroslav Isakovic

Film description

Joni, a 20-year-old recruit, joins a small troop stationed in the Yugoslav countryside. He comes there somewhat by accident - he just thought: why not? Only upon arrival does he learn that he was enlisted in a firing squad. At first, he resists and refuses to accept the orders, but then he gradually surrenders and adapts to the circumstances.

The mechanisms of military training and the process of an individual's subordination to principles were presented in Ordinary People with geometric precision, applying austere narration with hardly any dialogues. Vladimir Perisic does not strive to find an answer to the question of banality of evil, but he just makes a minimalist and powerfully moving image of ordinary people forcefully involved in military operations.

Agnieszka Zając