5/21/13

Redemption Street

"Ustanicka ulica" (English captions) is an award-winning entry from Serbia which we screened for the 2012 Seattle International Film Festival. Directed by Miroslav Terzic and based on an idea from Gordan Kicic (who also stars as the protagonist), this post-war thriller was certainly tense enough for ME!

Are there any wars where no war crimes were committed? I doubt it. In this one, we see an ambitious young prosecutor assigned a folder of names from a para-military unit that fought in Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Herzegovina; they were charged with several massacres, but the case is now considered closed. It is his job to reopen the case and investigate these allegations of war crimes. Even though years have passed, his law-professor father warns him that it is still dangerous to look too closely at some of those names.

This well-meaning fellow is so naïve! He strolls into darkened alleys where common sense would tell a seasoned movie-going audience that a hardened criminal might be armed and waiting. His amateurish sleuthing is just good enough to stir up a bunch of trouble, from which he is confronted with the truth, and a loaded gun. His idea of surreptitiously following a car is a joke! We see cold-blooded murders and fear the same fate for our hero.

Yikes!
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Here is a preview supplied by SIFF:
* * * * * * * * * * * *