In this century, the confusion of identity persists as one of the supporting premises of even those stories that, at least at the first few glances, do not seem like fertile ground for that heavy motive and thematic burden. Of course, what literary theory knows as the Ich-form contributes to this, and this confessional-introspective-individualistic approach to storytelling from a personal point of view has equivalents in all other video arts, and then, of course, in popular culture. All this is obvious on the example of a documentary film Yugo goes to America Filip Grujić and Aleksa Borković. The young directors, for whom this is their first feature-length directorial work, also wrote the screenplay (Grujić), Borković is the director of photography, and both are the actors of this documentary-styled story about a journey "south" from end to end of America (USA).
If the trailer and the available announcements, introductions and information about the film are not clear to anyone for some reason, let it be pointed out here that this is not a reportage and/or thematic documentary about the attempt to break through and the subsequent euthanasia of that dream of the success of the "south" from Kragujevac's "Zastava" on American soil. This is the first movie of the road (road movie), and then an identity drama, more precisely, a dramedy. Each one road movie somehow it has to be, and it is abundantly garnished with a kind of variation on the postulates of an adventure film, which Yugo goes to America to the greatest extent, it clearly separates from the mainstream concept of thematic documentary film, at the same time giving this directorial debut of Grujić and Borković the illusion of a feature film; the story is exciting and dynamic.
A group of young millennials from Serbia set out on a self-imposed mission to travel "south" from the east to the west of the USA. Their idea is to trace the roots of the unpleasant legend that it is the worst car in history. That legend has been alive for decades and it inevitably requires that, with every mention of this late car (and all the dreams, personal and wider, social, that closely followed those dreams), it is always repeated that, well, it is the worst car in history. As Grujić, Borković and their comrades will soon find out (from conversations with undisputed insiders) and admit, that phrase is simply not correct and is a convenient solution for those who are addicted to extremely easy and quick points, as well as those who hit and target those who are easy to hit and ridicule.
photo: aleksa borković...
In the first half of the film, the authors try to maintain a kind of balance between the two arms of the story, between the aspect concerning the story of the history of the "southern" mission in America on the one hand, and the search for resolving at least some of the major personal identity dilemmas and trilemmas on the other. In the first part, Grujić and Borković fall into a trap that even more experienced and mature authors have not managed to avoid: the unevenness of the interlocutors, while, perhaps paradoxically, we get the least from Jason Vujić, the author of documentary prose translated and published in our country, Yugo, The rise and fall of the worst car in history. Quite simply, some interlocutors are naturally more lively and jovial, some are irreparably tight and restrained, some more versed, some less inspired. And this is a "sin" that can in principle be forgiven when it comes to a documentary film, especially since a wider range of participants and interlocutors is sometimes necessary in order to "respect" the projected length of a long meter, as well as to more clearly position and mutually network the main elevations of a more extensive context. In the second half, Grujić and Borković already seem more confident and relaxed, and offer us a fun and charming film that easily handles and sovereignly controls a series of adventurous episodes on the road, and helps to Yugo goes to America recognizes and then values it as a generational identity drama or an identity drama of a generation.
The truth, Yugo goes to America on that trail, among other things, it also leaves the impression of a kind of gentrification of a poor delusion from the era of self-governing socialism, and the legend of the South as a waking dream of a society on the verge of exhaustion. There is also the hipster reaching for the denormalization of the undeniably ordinary and everyday, and the translation of the profane into a higher ideological and then ideological register. However, in this general impression that millennials, longing for their own richer identity complexity, also seem like a generation that instinctively gentrifies parts of the collective memory for which they are biologically too late, there is a certain "guilt" of those generations that preceded them and that were at least lucky enough to grow up and change in times that were more revolutionary and meaningful, and therefore transformative. more generous. In that regard Yugo goes to America suddenly he falls into another column: he can be criticized for seeming too contrived, for example in the scenes of the guest worker party with the "South" at the very end of the film or the episodes with incidental drinking with the guitar. However, we must also be precise and honest, this is a very pleasant film, it is informative enough, it successfully imitates the styles of the American hipster independent film, and, on top of all that, it allows older viewers to indulge in ad hoc nostalgic introspection, while the younger audience can find out what it was like to dream (and also with new or at least more comfortable identities) when it was not heresy and the crowning proof of the fluency of those who embark on such and such paths.
