Review of The Great Water (2004) by Amjad S — 17 Feb 2008

This film? WOW! Gorgeous, haunting amazing. This is a Macedonian film based on a book about the extremely difficult transition many countries had to brave after WWII.

The wikipedia description hardly does it justice: The film begins in the present as old Lem (Meto Jovanovski), Macedonian politician who is experiencing a heart attack and while he is being wheeled into a hospital and examined and wired, he has memory flashbacks to his childhood in 1945. He is brought to the 'orphanage' where orphans are children of the enemies of the new regime. There he learns how to adjust to the role of obedient brainwashing. He becomes mesmerized by a new kid, Isak, a beautiful and charismatic boy. The struggles quietly underplaying all of the camp surface activity are many: the dichotomy of a Communist ideology removing the Church from existence with a people dependent upon the spiritual values of religion, the Stalin/Tito issue, the adjustments to the policies of Communist regime in a country where fierce national pride had ruled, and the depersonalization of children into political pawns despite the need for role models and the luxury of growing up with friends and confidants.

I found it mesmerizing.