Young Critics Network
Montenegro Film Festival is hosting a workshop for young critics. Apply and learn from the best regional journalists how to write film critics and become a member of the Young Critics Network. Call is open for students and young professionals.
Film Reviews
The Hypnosis – Childishness as the essence of self-knowledge
Jelena Ilić
The Hypnosis, a film by Ernst De Geer, by its very name implies a game of subconsciousness and consciousness, however – what is it really about? We follow the love couple Vera (Asta Kamma August) and André (Herbert Nordrum) whose relationship is challenged by social expectations. The seemingly innocuous situation, the so-called pitch training dedicated to the development of a completely superficial application, carries with it the motive of self-knowledge from the very beginning. Fearful of mentoring authority, a group of people is ready to change their personality from the ground up, losing themselves on that short, straight and one-way path. Vera, with her opposition to the imposed rules, causes a disturbance in the hierarchical system established without cover.
Milk - The absurdity of the defense mechanism
Jelena Ilić
Milk (Melk), the debut film by Dutch director Stefanie Kolk, follows a woman who, after losing her child, continues to produce milk that she no longer has anyone to give. Robin struggles with the trauma in silence, without superfluous words and gestures. Her defense mechanisms in the fight against loss are falling into deeper and deeper absurdity. We can ask ourselves: where does one draw the line with reason?
Blood-soaked soil
Jovana Marković
Chilean director Felipe Galvez's debut, The Settlers (Los colonos), exudes exceptional artistic and conceptual precision. This brutal anti-western film deals with the topics of colonialism and power relations in a skilful and insightful way, deconstructing the mentality of the oppressor and analyzing the nature of violence. "Your sheep (...) have now become such vermin and so wild that they can eat and digest a whole man," is the quote that opens the film and in which lies the essence of the cruelty of this world.
In a world that constantly flows and ebbs
Jovana Marković
The second feature animated film by Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis received many important awards, including Un Certain Regard in Cannes as well as an Oscar for the best animated achievement. Flow (Straume) is a moving story about a group of unexpected companions who find common ground in unusual circumstances. They, like water, constantly ebb, adapt, and transform.
Animals in human remains
Luka Mijatović
Flow is an animated film by Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis, that premiered at the Cannes Festival in 2024. Soon after, it achieved the status of one of the most successful films of the Latvian cinema. At the 97th Academy Awards, it won the Best Animated Film award. Flow depicts the Great Flood, an ancient myth present in almost every civilization and culture. However, this time, we look at the ancient archetypal legend of destruction and restoration, inherent in the human understanding of the world, from the perspective of a cat. This combination would not be so unusual if it was not an attempt to show animals as convincingly as possible in the film, while at the same time watching them effectively navigate the ark in search of rescue from the flood.
Anora – From love melodrama to harsh social drama (or: Anora – dynamics of love)
Marija Marković
Sean Baker, known for his authentic and naturalistic depictions of marginalized individuals, Anora tells the story of the heroine between two realities – the harsh everyday life and the world of the rich, where love, power, and status shape lives. The film, which has won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actress in a Leading Role, manages to combine a personal, intimate story with universal social issues, making it accessible to a wider audience.
Milk – Monotony of Pain
Marija Marković
Stefanie Kolk's debut film, Milk (2023), tackles the intimate and painful experience of losing a child. This drama follows the inner life of Robin, whose loss leaves deep emotional pain while her body continues to produce milk. Her strong need to donate this milk to mothers in need is becoming a way of dealing with grief, but also a great challenge.
No entry for dogs and assertive women
Mina Miljanić
The feature film "The Hypnosis", a debut by young Swedish director Ernst de Geer, premiered at the 57th Karlovy Vary Film Festival in 2023. The film follows the young couple Vera (Asta Kamma August) and André (Herbert Nordrum), entrepreneurs who get the opportunity to present their application regarding women's reproductive health at a start-up in front of investors. In the same period, Vera goes through hypnotherapy to quit smoking, but instead of quitting smoking, she experiences a radical change in behavior.
Rapid Eye Fame, Rapid Eye Shame
Mina Miljanić
"Dream Scenario" is a satirical surreal drama, as well as the first American film by Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli, who also directed, wrote, and edited it. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2023, and the fact that it was produced by the renowned A24 studio, and produced under the supervision of Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen, suggests that it addresses a specific, carefully profiled audience. The decision for Nicolas Cage to interpret the main character further intensifies the interest of viewers who are eager for quirky humor.
The Garrel Recipe: Throw in Everything Possible, Even Greta Thunberg, Don't Stir, Serve Raw
Miomir Milosavac
When choosing to watch the film The Crusade: How to Save the Planet, I was most attracted by the description of the film and its length of only 67 minutes. It is a 2021 film by actor, director and screenwriter Louis Garrel, based on a script written by Garrel and the famous screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière. In terms of genre, it is a comedy that problematizes and satirises the boring everyday life of married couples with children. The premise seems promising and original, but the film fails, and it seems that it does not even try to meet the expectations of the audience.
From Blender to Oscar
Miomir Milosavac
At the recent Academy Awards, the Latvian film Flow, directed by Gints Zilbalodis and co-written by Matīss Kaža, achieved great success by winning the Best Animated Feature Film award. Nominated even in the category for the best international film, and as a winner of the Golden Globe, "Flow" achieved unexpected success, becoming the most watched in Latvian history and entering the selections of numerous festivals.
Our right to know everything
Mirjana Gabrić
Plastic Fantastic is the fourth documentary by German director Isa Willinger, whose introduction begins with the sentence: "There are five hundred more plastic particles in the sea than stars in our galaxy". Although the focus in the film is primarily environmental, there is also a serious question of political influence on the right of freedom to be informed, if it exists today at all.
I will love you from afar
Mirjana Gabrić
Family dramas, by their very nature, carry with them a gloomy and exhaustive energy, but director Peter Hoogendoorn goes in the opposite direction. He uses without hesitation what is the unavoidable burden of any conflict, especially a family one, and that is discomfort. Guided by the experience from his personal life, he presented his relationship with his father in a film that does not run away from it, but highlights it and puts it in the foreground through the confronted main characters.
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence – Roy Andersson: What is life?
Petra Novalija
Roy Andersson, master of the cinematic absurd, concludes his trilogy on human existence with the film "A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence" (2014), which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. The film offers a series of "vignettes" in which grotesque, lifeless characters survive everyday life as a sense of anxious meaninglessness looms over their lives. In other words, a film that recalls the bad days in the life of every viewer – just with a little better lighting.
Milk Stefanie Kolk: How does a woman remember a loss?
Petra Novalija
In her feature film debut, Dutch director and former biophysicist Stefanie Kolk presents "Milk," an intimate exploration of grief and physical trauma. The film premiered at the Locarno Festival, where it attracted attention due to its subtle but striking visual narration. Through the story of a young woman whose body continues to produce milk after the stillbirth, "Milk" addresses the question of how the body remembers loss and how the process of grieving becomes physiologically tangible.