2009 CINEMA CITY / NOVI SAD  The Best Male Role Award - IBIS statuete and prize in the amount of 2.000,00 $ in the "National Class" competition program goes to an actor in the film ST. GEORGE SHOTS THE DRAGON, Lazar Ristovski.

FESTIVALS

2009 International Film Festival of India

2009 Film Festival Cottbus

2009 London Film Festival

2009 Montreal World Film Festival

2009 Cinema City-Novi Sad

2009 Niš-Film festival

REVIEW: THE TIMES

St George Shoots the Dragon

Epic, visionary Serbian war film from director Srdjan Dragojevic, about conflict, passion and jealousy in a village facing the prospect of World War I.

Srdjan Dragojevic's Pretty Flame, Pretty Village was one of the key films of 90s Balkan cinema. His latest, one of Serbia's most expensive productions to date, is a hugely ambitious World War One drama, with Dušan Kovačević (who wrote Kusturica's Underground) adapting his own stage play. Set in a village on the Sava River, on Serbia's border with Austro-Hungary, the film starts in 1912, as two men return from war with Turkey. Losing an arm in battle, Gavrilo turns away from city girl Katarina (Natasa Janjic), who marries his officer Djorje (Lazar Ristovski). Two years later, Djorje is gendarme in the village where Gavrilo is involved in a cross-border smuggling operation. But it's not long before a bullet fired by the smuggler's namesake, Gavrilo Princip, sets off World War One, and the village is plunged into the long murky night of war as ominous portents of St George loom in the skies overhead. An ambitious, swaggering blend of Zhivago-esque historical romance and Kusturica-style rural grotesque, this is an atmospheric drama with a moving apocalyptic climax. Historical filmmaking with the grandest of flourishes, St George Shoots the Dragon is, of course, implicitly as much about recent Balkan conflicts as about the past.

Jonathan Romney

Director
Srdjan Dragojevic
Cast
Lazar Ristovski, Natasa Janjic, Milutin Milosevic
Country
Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria
Writer
Dušan Kovečević
Running time
120min
Year
2009

REVIEW: VARIETY

Montreal
St. George Shoots the Dragon
Sveti Georgije ubiva azdahu (Serbia)
By DENNIS HARVEY

A Sveti Georgije Ubiva Azdahu D.O.O. (Serbia) production in association with Oskar Film and Camera
 
With: Lazar Ristovski, Millutin Milosevic, Natasa Janjic, Bora Todorovic, Zoran Cvijanovic, Dragan Nikolic, Predrag Vasic, Branislav Lecic, Boris Milivojevic, Milena Dravic, Mladen Adrejevic, Srdjan Timarov, Bojan Zirovic, Slobodan Boda Ninkovic, Milena Predic, Branislaw Zeremski, Srdjan Miletic, Goran Jevtic, Ljuba Bandovic.

 
Purportedly the third most expensive Serbian film ever produced, "St. George Shoots the Dragon" follows by some distance Srdjan Dragojevic's "Pretty Village, Pretty Flame" and "The Wounds" -- both '90s pics that examined consequences of the war in Bosnia -- with another antiwar statement. This one, however, takes place nearly a century ago, when Serbia fought in a series of conflicts culminating in WWI. Long-aborning feature sports a robust tenor and impressive scale, but the intended tragicomic sweep is shackled to a tepid romantic triangle of very little rooting interest. International sales will be spotty for this Montreal World fest prize-winner.
Adapted by Dusan Kovacevic from his 1984 play, the pic commences with a sepia prologue in which strapping young soldier Gavrilo (Millutin Milosevic) loses an arm during the 1912 Serbo-Turkish War. Returning home, he's too embittered to marry Sarajevo fiancee Katarina (Natasa Janjic) as planned.
Two years later, he's settled in a grubby village on the Sava River, smuggling goods across the border from Australia alongside other, mostly war-wounded societal castoffs. Meanwhile, Katarina has married his former army superior, George (Lazar Ristovski), if only because George is now stationed as police chief in that same village. She and Gavrilo carry on a none-too-secret affair -- soon both she and his barely acknowledged peasant wife are carrying his babies -- while the nobly suffering George stews.
Eventually the Great War comes along. Somewhat relieved to exchange his domestic battles for a more familiar, clear-cut kind, George returns to military service. Gavrilo is deemed unfit for duty, until fears that not-entirely-disabled veterans such as himself are plowing more than fields back home result in all such "rejects" being ordered back to the front. Climactic massacre finds the rivalrous male protags pondering whether to off one another before the enemy Austrians can.
Extensive supporting cast of rudely alive rural types does not neglect to include village idiot, hunchback, precocious orphan tyke or three-legged dog. Equally broad are the portentous and/or religious symbolism. Dragojevic directs the noisy, sprawling tale in colorful, confident fashion, at times recalling the rambunctious grotesquerie of Emir Kusturica's "Underground" (a more successful Kovacevic adaptation, also starring Ristovski). But it all seems schematic rather than felt, as if original inspiration had run out during a too-lengthy and troubled production history.
Biggest problem is the central romance, which is neither convincing nor appealing. Milosevic sticks to one macho, sexy glower; Janjic's beauty alone can't render enchanting a prematurely emancipated heroine whose defining trait is hissy-fit petulance. Ristovski is solid as usual, but as written, his sad-sack cuckold is more pathetic than sympathetic.
Effect throughout is busy but hollow, despite the tragic-epic-romance notes hopefully signaled by Aleksandar Randjelovic's orchestral score. When the pic ends on the statement, "And so it went, through the 20th century," it feels like a parting shrug rather than the intended passionate protest against Serbia's near-incessant violent struggles.
Though post-production was reportedly delayed (the pic was shot three years ago), then rushed and underfunded, tech/design contributions are all high-grade.

REVIEW: LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter)

Stephen Farber

Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:07pm EST

Serbia's entry in this year's 
Oscar competition is an ambitious World War I epic, "St. George 
Shoots the Dragon," that boasts striking visual effects, a skillful 
cast and a story that sometimes gets in the way of the impressive 
production.

Film

Although the film is sumptuously mounted, the uphill battle facing 
most foreign films will work against the picture in the U.S. 
marketplace.

The somewhat-convoluted script (written by Dusan Kovacevic) is set in 
a village near Serbia's border with Austria-Hungary. The film opens 
in 1912, during an earlier Serbian war with Turkey, when one of the 
main characters, a young soldier named Gavrilo (Milutin Milosevic), 
loses an arm.

Embittered by his injury, Gavrilo returns home and breaks off 
relations with Katarina (Natasa Janjic), who enters into a loveless 
marriage with George (Lazar Ristovski), Gavrilo's sergeant during the 
earlier battle. Sexual tension simmers among the three until the 
assassination of Archduke Ferdinand launches the First World War and 
alters their fates.

The first half of the movie jumps around, surveying a large number of 
characters, including the villagers, a band of smugglers, another 
woman involved with Gavrilo and a young orphan who is meant to guide 
us through the action. It's sometimes difficult to keep track of all 
the characters and their relationships, though the lead actors give 
compelling performances.

Milosevic cogently conveys the anger of a wounded veteran. Ristovski 
fumes with jealousy while also convincing us of the character's 
fundamental decency. Janjic is ravishing, which makes the two men's 
obsession quite understandable.

As the film morphs into a penetrating anti-war drama, it becomes 
considerably more potent. Director Srdjan Dragojevic, who made 
"Pretty Village, Pretty Flame" in 1996, demonstrates undeniable 
talent. The battle scenes capture the chaos and brutality of trench 
warfare, and the finale builds a mournful power. Cinematography is 
rich, and the score adds to the movie's impact. Although it's easy to 
grow impatient during "St. George's" early scenes, the haunting 
conclusion stays with you.

Explication: In this film, Lazar Ristovski gave a subtle yet powerful performance.