Like salami to be cut

Fenomen movies edited out of the series has grown into an epidemic that has seriously threatened the already shaken and compromised status of Serbian cinema for a long time. Film and series used to be – as they should be – separate worlds, with clear boundaries and respect for form. Today, a lot of things are recorded in parallel, so that the material is later repackaged, shortened and changed as needed, as if it were cutting salami, and not creating an indigenous work of art. That's why the results are the way they are - semi-finished products arrive in front of the audience that are "neither there nor there". something in between, without identity and without finesse. The latest example of that pernicious practice is Sedef-fog recently deceased Milorad Milinković (1965–2025), a work that at best (or the worst - depends on how you look at it) way illustrates this disastrous blurring of the boundaries between cinema and television.

...

In theory, it is a historical thriller based on a very good novel Sedef-fog (formerly known as The last sin - The case of Mrs. Markovicka) by the writer Dragoljub Stojković who, along with Milinković, is also signed as one of the screenwriters of the film. In practice, the audience was presented with a truly dubious confusion, a narratively confused and aesthetically uneven production that really has no place in cinemas. This film, which is not hidden, was compiled from the material recorded for the series Sulfur, which has yet to be broadcast and which is a sort of continuation of the film/series What My Thoughts Are Struggling from 2023/2024. year. And while that earlier project, made according to the same recipe, despite its numerous flaws, had at least an apparent coherence, Sedef-fog is falling apart at the seams from start to finish.

The script of the film is formally based on the aforementioned novel and true events from 1882. Jelena Ilka Marković (played by Milena Predić) tries to kill King Milan Obrenović in the Cathedral. Ms. Markovića fails in her plan and soon after is found dead in her cell - the official version says that she hung herself with a towel on the bed, while the traces clearly indicate that this was not possible. A similar fate is experienced by Jelena Lena Knićanin (young Miona Marković), Ilka's friend and confidant, whose mysterious death will become one of the main drivers of the film's action. These events of 1882 are shown in a quick montage during the opening minutes Sedef-fogs, and later, if necessary, they return in the form of flashbacks in black and white.

The main plot takes place seven years later, when Sava throws out the body of a murdered girl in Zemun, and not long after, Jovan Bajić, the great-grandson of Prince Miloš, is found dead in the Topčider forest. Two crimes are connected to the long-ago assassination in the Cathedral Church, and the case is being reopened. Failed lawyer Andrija Kusturić (Petar Strugar) and corrupt Belgrade police chief Đorđe Čogurić (Miloš Timotijević) start an investigation, each for their own reasons. In this tangle of political intrigues, love tragedies and historical reconstructions, the film tries to be both a mystery and a costume drama and a noir and a political thriller - ultimately failing to be any of these.

Sedef-fog suffers from acute structural chaos. The script is dominated by a series of parallel lines that do not meet, the dialogues border on the absurd. Adding to the confusion is the fact that some actors, such as Miloš Timotijević and Siniša Dugalić, are re-interpreting the same - now older - characters from the previous project Što se bore misle moje, while others, such as Jana Ivanović and Luka Grbić, in Sedef-sweaters they play completely new roles. The audience easily gets lost in such a labyrinth of loose identities and wrong choices (why, for example, do all the heroines look like each other like an egg, weren't variations possible with a more thoughtful choice of actresses?), and the confusion is so great that even a more versed viewer, like the signator of these lines, cannot find his way and grasp the plot.

The rhythm of the editing, for which the experienced Stevan Marić was in charge, constantly oscillates between too fast and too slow, and at times it seems as if this film story was edited by an artificial intelligence to which someone assigned the desired minutes. Technically, the film has its strengths - Dalibor Tonković's photography is correct (though distinctly televised, without the ambition needed for the big screen), Ivana Protić's scenography decently reconstructs the era, while the cast is respectable - but all this loses its meaning when the narrative turns into a hazy mess. The greatest value is Ana Krstajić's music, which, to be honest, is wasted in a film like this.

The premiere Sedef-fogs it was held at the 32nd edition of the international film festival in Palić, in the main competition program, out of competition, among other things in Milinković's honor, which was followed by screenings at more domestic festivals, and now cinema distribution. Although it is Sedef-fog at the first National Film and Television Festival (NAFFIT) took home the highest number of awards - for the best film, screenplay, direction and sound design - this fact is more of a concern than a source of pride. Because if a project like this can be crowned with the highest awards at a festival that aspires to be "national" and to highlight the best that Serbian film has to offer, then it means that we have already gotten used to the fog and that it doesn't even bother us anymore when we can no longer see clearly.

As usual in these situations, there remains the hope that in the form of a series it will all work better, but even if it does - we still have the problem of the existence of a cinema film which is essentially a by-product born of a mere commercial calculation, not an artistic necessity. Authors and producers usually defend this model, claiming that without filming the series, the film could not be financed. That explanation sounds logical in terms of production, which does not change the fact that it is artistically disastrous. Today, Serbian film stands at the crossroads between art and calculation, between inspiration and montage remnants and scraps. As long as series are made only to justify the existence of movies, and the movies serve as covert promotional material for the series, audiences will get confused, half-assed stories with no identity, hybrid half-products that are ends in themselves. Sedef-fog is just the latest symptom of that disease – and proof that in such and such a cinematic fog, no matter how pearly it is, it can easily get lost.

This October, "Vreme" celebrates and honors - as much as 35 percent discount for our 35th birthday! Valid for semi-annual and annual subscriptions. Subscribe now!