One who doesn't know film style Želimir Žilnik would, watching the latest film of that director, could have thought it was a documentary. And indeed, we believe that Stevan, the main character of the film "Restitution, or, Dream and Java of the Old Guard", once played in a band called "The Montenegro Five".
But at the moment when Stevan receives an invitation in a small Viennese record store to return to his old homeland, because the state decided to return his family estate, which was confiscated after the Second World War, the film fiction begins, which puts the actor, Milan Kovačević, who is really a musician-guest worker and a former member of "The Montenegro Five", in the role of Stevan Arsin, who with an unexpected inheritance enters the world of bureaucracy, memories and unexpected encounters, writes Deutsche says.
A melancholic encounter with the monster of bureaucracy
The film oeuvre of Želimir Žilnik from the early days in the early sixties is characterized by a mixture of documentary and feature form, and he reached for it in this film, which, as part of the 75th anniversary Berlinale, was shown in the "Forum" film program. As stated in the festival catalog, films characterized by "aesthetic idiosyncrasy" are shown there. So it turns out that Žilnik - even 56 years after the film "Early works", which is characterized by a similar documentary-feature form - is in the company of the film avant-garde.
At the same time, "Restitution, or, Dream and Java of the Old Guard" (the English name of the film is "80+"), does not require increased effort when watching, but introduces the viewer to a calm and melancholic story about an "eighty-year-old +" who faces his own past and present, but at the end of the film, he still finds a future, despite his late years.
Relaxed approach
Želimir Žilnik, who himself is more than 80 years old, explains in an interview with DW how he managed to describe in a charming and witty way a story that touches on many negative phenomena of a society in transition, from the problem of theft of state property, through corruption, to the catastrophic financial situation of young families.
"There is a lot of energy and creativity in those characters of ours for a witty look at that position of ours, who manages to go out for a duel with the greats." It's all a matter of style and personal approach," says Žilnik in a conversation at Potsdamer Platz, where most events related to the Berlinale take place.
Its protagonist, Stevan, thus meanders through meetings with the family he left to work in Germany, with old musician friends and old loves. And everything is so relaxed, typical of Vojvodina, that at the first moment we don't even notice the tragedy of a man who, in fact, is left without what belongs to him for the second time. But happiness is not in money.
Resent the authorities always and everywhere
The biography of Želimir Žilnik is full of struggle against structures. At the end of the sixties, despite his international successes, he increasingly had problems with the Yugoslav authorities, who did not tolerate his criticism of social reality. Despite the ban, those same Yugoslav authorities did not miss the opportunity to make money from those films abroad.
"It is absurd that some of our films were banned at home, but they were shown all over the world and went into distribution," recalls Žilnik.
Then he returned to Germany, a country where, in addition to the Golden Bear in Berlin, he also won awards at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival. There, in the seventies, he filmed a series of anthology films about the life of the so-called guest workers, some of which, like "Inventure Metzerstrasse" from 1975, have not lost their relevance.
But in Germany he also came into conflict with the authorities because, as he said in an earlier interview, he "pulled their noses". Nevertheless, he considers Germany to be his second film homeland, and he is always happy to return again and again to show films there. That tradition, he says, has been going on for more than fifty years.
"1969, when my film 'Early Works' won at the Berlinale, was also the year when an entire retrospective of Yugoslav films was shown here," he recalled in an interview with DW. "We didn't feel like a foreign country here."
Complicated history
And his protagonist Milan felt good abroad where he led a more or less mundane life as a musician in posh hotels where he entertained the jet set. In his native Srem, however, he is faced with a problem that is as complicated as the history of that part of Europe.
His parents' house was built in one country, confiscated in another, and now he wants it returned to him by a third country. But that process is not going the way Milan wishes, because even in this new state there are many who would like to take a part of his new, material happiness.
Milan, on the other hand, just like his filmmaker Žilnik, looks at problems in a relaxed way.
"They censored me at home and put pressure on me, despite being awarded abroad. Being too sensitive about what is happening to you is a big mistake. Instead, we should face our weaknesses in general and the complexity of our spaces", concludes Želimir Žilnik.
