shakytakes_15_06_2015
in video
A cold and cruel place
Four days a week, starting at 9 pm, if we choose HRT 1, we are relentlessly exposed to an effective cocktail of crime, a political thriller, and horror. It's served under the label "Rest in Peace", which is a strong narcotic and leaves behind incurable addicts who want higher doses every day. One can hardly wish for more from television fiction.
Four days a week, starting at 9 pm, if we choose HRT 1, we are relentlessly exposed to an effective cocktail of crime, a political thriller, and horror. It's served under the label "Rest in Peace", which is a strong narcotic and leaves behind incurable addicts who want higher doses every day. One can hardly wish for more from television fiction.
We can pretend that we don't know where exactly this meta-genre bomb was created, so let's imagine that it is exclusively the fruit of imagination from some orderly civilized country. Production (Ring Production for HRT, producer Dario Vince, executive producer Miodrag Sila) concentrates on holding all the tools in their hands, giving the illusion that they were easily achieved in fabulous payment terms. In that name, great directing (Goran Dukić), writing (main screenwriter Saša Podgorelec, co-screenwriters Ivan Turković Krnjak and Dario Vince, who is also the creator of the series), and visual (camera Mario Sablić, scenography Ivan Veljača) talents are pushed into the game. Judita Franković, Anja Šovagović-Despot, and Nina Violić give exciting flesh to the wicked material, leading a phenomenal acting team (Goran Navojec, Dragan Despot, Jelena Miholjević, Boris Cavazza, Daria Lorenci-Flatz, Helena Minić-Matanić, Boris Svrtan, Bojan Navojec, Hrvoje Kečkeš, Goran Grgić, Luka Dragić...) in which there is simply no bad character.
But in addition to great meta-genre treats - quite enough to nail you to the screen - there’s also that engaged degree of a dedicated mission here. "Rest in Peace" in the second season further inflamed the fever of its relentless struggle for social justice. Every member of the creative team has an unadulterated childish faith in social responsibility. Not only is prime time being filled with quality TV, but something much more is being developed - the expulsion of demons from ethically, aesthetically, and economically disintegrated Croatia. And that’s why every character, director-led and brought to life by actor, is so damn convincingly written - because they all believe in the mission that the agony and destruction of this society must and can be stopped.
Mate Šušnjara (Dragan Despot), a seductive monster of everyday life, stoically accustomed to crime, is cynically precise: "The world is a cold and cruel place. It is constantly testing us." He's one of the creators of the generally accepted destruction that has nestled in the swampy foundations of Croatia like an immortal virus. And it corroded, humiliated every meaning of civilian life. Robbery, greed and gluttony, giant tails of squeezing the last lump of values (material and human), political arrogance and raw terror of will for power - all this is uncompromisingly driven to the purgatory by the creators of the series "Rest in Peace".
While the series airs, let's enjoy the juicy first-league fiction. Once it's gone, it is to be hoped that her onslaught for good and the fight against evil will bear lasting fruit. And be just a fond memory, because we will rest in a happier country. Preferably alive and well.
Rest in Peace do not like coincidences
If you’ve ever read crime novels then you know that detectives don’t like coincidences. The adventures of Lucija Car in the second week of broadcasting will convince you that she really is a "true detective". Certainly, the closest we've ever recorded.
Some time ago, I read Zoran Krušvar's book "Executors of the Lord's Plan." A relatively simple weft introduced me to Istrian peculiarities, and Rijeka, as a city, perfectly complemented the mythology of the book. I grew up with Istria a lot during my childhood, from family ties to my first journalistic experiences. It was these journalistic experiences that upgraded the already mentioned Krušvar's book with a special taste of the "Istrakon" fantasy festival, which, coincidentally, took place in Pazin this weekend. And while Jules Verne was inspired by the Pazin Cave, while Balašević also sang about it, Istria was bypassed on our screens as if it did not belong to the clichés about the regions that have dominated film and TV series production from Croatia's independence until today. I'm glad to say the second season of "Rest in Peace" has changed that, but I'm even more glad that it's not the only thing that has changed.
Croatian Radiotelevision aired four out of ten episodes. The plot, unlike the first season, was shot in a way that is more reminiscent of the Scandinavian series, and it is evident that the screenwriters had more freedom in this format. The first four episodes can be seen as a warm-up for what is to come, and the fact that after the first week there are a lot of positive comments further emphasizes how high "Rest in Peace" raises the bar for all future productions. Speaking of which, I warmly hope that there will be future productions and that positive reactions to "Rest in Peace" will lead to a redefinition of what is interesting content for domestic producers. It is clear to me "Rest in Peace" format is more demanding and difficult for both viewers and those who produce it, but the great popularity of Scandinavian series such as "Forbrydelsenr", "Bron/Broen" or "Borgen", as well as French "Engrenage" proves that there is an interest in a quality crime genre in our country. In fact, it’s fascinating how these ordinary, life-like things passed by our screenwriters and filmmakers as we duly endeavored to serve content that required neither special engagement nor from viewers or those who produce them. I'd be glad if "Rest in Peace" was just the first series of those that will tackle the world we live in, not the one we flee to.
Any review of any television program starts with its broadcast slot and its promotion. Today, in the age of the Internet and "pay and watch" technology, broadcasting a series at a given time can be considered an outdated model, but while the promotion of the second season is commendable (compared to the first), it is actually strange that HRT did not use the opportunity offered by aggressive "Black-White World" promotions. I am inclined to agree with Zrinka Pavlić from T-portal, who wrote in her critique that this aggressive promotion to CBS was actually a disservice, but it is surprising that none of the marketing experts on national television didn't come with a suggestion to broadcast the first season premiering season two. Thus, since season one passed under the radar, people who like what they have seen so far in season two actually can't legally watch the season that introduced Lucija Car and criticism of modern society to Croatian TV.
Based on the first four episodes, we can conclude that the second season is even darker than the first. The shift from one case-one episode formula made it possible to paint a broader picture throughout the season, so with each further episode, the series draws us deeper into Istrian landscapes that are in stark contrast to the story being told. Although it is constantly emphasized that any resemblance to real people and events is accidental, the references of real-life events will be clear even to superficial viewers. Judita Franković is fantastic again in the role of Lucija Car, and the shift of the series from Zagreb to Istria eliminated the characters with whom I had the most problems in the previous season. This made the whole series even better, and as a special curiosity, I would like to point out the excellent and tense chemistry that Franković and Dragan Despot have in their conversations. Their conversations in prison, where Despot's character ended up after the events of the first season, are particularly interesting because Lucija Car is different from that naive journalist from the very beginning of the story. The anxiety we feel in her character, the obvious panic attacks, hallucinations, and intense reliving of the events made her more fragile, more sensitive, but I would dare say at the same time more lively and sexy compared to the first season. Also, more powerful. According to the characters from the cult stories, this weakness and trauma become a source of her determination and strength needed to shed light on the secret of the company "Chemix", whose workers are dead, but no one has ever been responsible for their deaths. Corporations like to cover up their sins, and digging through the buried sins of a company privatized in that "wild wave" of privatization will bring Lucia to the center of an affair in which it will be very difficult to get the skeletons to speak.
The additional complexity of the story is emphasized by the better characterization of the characters in the fictional Istrian town of Globin. Globin hides his stories and secrets, and the attitude towards those who visit Istria only during the tourist season and tennis tournament in Umag, while at the same time being constantly stepmotherly towards that same Istria, is one of the main topics of the second season. The excellent music of the group "Veja" is an outstanding background for the events in the series. We already saw "Gustaf" last week, and in the ninth episode, the appearance of Alen Vitasović was announced, which will give all fans of Istrian music additional reasons to watch episodes this week. What marks the second season of "Rest in Peace" is the parallel telling of a deep story and Lucija's introspective examination of Mate Šušnjara. Dragan Despot got a much deeper, human, and strongly outlined character this season and his performance is really brilliant. Lucija in Globin falls into a web of various characters. In the beginning, we have a rather pale but later better Anja Šovagović Despot, excellent Helena Minić Matanić and Nina Violić and standard good Goran Navojec. In this spider web of various characters, it is difficult to conclude who is an ally and who is an enemy because each of them can be poisonous to Lucia.
There was a lot of media buzz about the problems with the Istrian dialect, but I must say that it is understandable to me that in such an ambitious project there is a variation in the quality of performance of a demanding dialect. There are several reasons why it is difficult for a television production of this type to be completely authentic. The series is also intended for viewers outside Istria, so I guess it is somewhat adapted for easier understanding, and some actors have visibly put a lot of effort to show the accents and specific lengths as faithfully as possible. The pology on the official Facebook page of the series is commendable, which emphasizes that, unfortunately, with all the effort, complete authenticity could not be achieved. What I would like to point out is the fact that this is not a necessity for a series like this. The story of the series, as well as the relationships between the characters, are of sufficient quality to hold the viewer's attention even when the wrong pronunciation or the wrongly emphasized word "stab in the ear". The screenwriters of the series did not reconstruct the speech but told the story, and it is interesting that this dialect in the series is the only one of its kind in the history of the serial program of Croatian television. Therefore, it is not surprising the positive reactions of the local media and public astonishment about why Croatian scenarios are drowning in the clichés of Dalmatians, Purgers, and Zagorje without the intention to turn a little west or (more recently) east.
For the end of this text, I will return once again to the excellent application of Istrian legends. The one about Jura Grand is an interesting subtext of the series because it raises the question of what human emotion turns a human bat into vampires, and we could push that assumption a little further and say that in the series "Rest in Peace" these metaphorical vampires are hidden behind the cloak of executive power, a power that fits perfectly into that symbolic category of bats. What remains when all the dust is removed from the secrets, all the veils that hid the Globin stories, and how Goran Dukić connected the stunning Istrian landscapes with a morbid and realistic story, we will find out in further episodes that are definitely worth watching. I don’t remember anything similar being filmed on domestic television.
It is a coincidence that "Istrakon" finished this weekend. Coincidentally, we are entering a holiday mood this week. It is also a coincidence that we can read many things on the newspaper pages that remind us of the plot of this series.
If you’ve ever read crime novels then you know that detectives don’t like coincidences. The adventures of Lucija Car in the second week of broadcasting will convince you that she really is a "true detective". Certainly, the closest we've ever recorded.
'Rest in Peace' still at the top of our drama production
To the satisfaction of its viewers, HRT got into trouble. After 'Black-White World', they allowed us to follow another good - even superb - domestic series on a daily basis, the second season of the crime drama 'Rest in Peace'. The series, just like in its first season, was excellently filmed, cleverly written, well-acted, and, unlike the first season, decently announced, so it attracted the same kind of attention. HTV is in trouble because, after this series, they'll have to offer us something at approximately the same level of quality.
When the 'Rest in Peace' season one started airing, I enthusiastically, based on the first few episodes, concluded that it was the top of domestic feature TV production and I did not regret that assessment for a moment. True, the series did not manage to maintain the level of brilliance of the first few episodes, but it was excellent until the very end, here and there slightly tarnished by charming offshoots of a Zagreb acting school that sometimes even boasts academic credentials. The problem with the first season, however, was that HRT, on which it was shown, advertised and announced it pretty badly, so that pearl of the domestic program remained relatively poorly noticed.
In the meantime, realizing that it has a medium at its disposal where it can be advertised without too much expense, HRT welcomed the second season of this series much more readily. Perhaps not as hysterically as in the case of 'Black and White World' (which, due to exaggeration, actually did the series a disservice), HRT lured the audience with teasers, so 'Rest in Peace II' landed on fertile ground. The series has been widely discussed on social media and in real-life since the start of broadcasting on Monday, and since it is not tied to any factography of past times, this time we are spared comments in style: the day Tito died was not such a nice time, the comments being mostly about the quality of the series itself and the comments are mostly positive.
Based on the eight episodes sent by Ring produkcija to reporters (one of the most generous screeners I’ve personally met), the positive comments are very well-grounded. Continuing the first season with the main character, journalist Lucija Car (Judita Franković), and the main topic of investigating the circumstances of the death of a group of people defined by life and troubles in a limited area, this time we no longer deal with the prison cemetery, but dark events in an industrial Istrian town. .Sent to the field to report on the mystical Istrian sacrificial cult and its leader, she accidentally discovers that the (fictional town) was sown with death by a former asbestos fiber factory, both ecologically and typically in transitional immoral curves.
The first season of this series was mostly set as a so-called procedural, solving one plot in each episode - a criminal case, a health crisis, a lawsuit, and the like. Thus, in the first season, although the links between the episodes did exist (they are even partially transferred to the second season), Lucija revealed a separate story about one buried prisoner or prisoner each time. The second season approached the story differently - although there are a dozen of those who rest in unrest, their deaths are investigated as part of a broader story about the Istrian town and its specifics, but also about the dark side of the transition policy and economy.
Filmed in the best manner of Scandinavian noir, polished to unprecedented proportions for domestic production, with a strong cast that, however, is criticized for a poor imitation of the Istrian dialect, the series again - somewhat more explicitly than in the first season - presents a brutally awkward view of things that have been happening in our country for about twenty years. For this occasion, even the excellent opening credits of Simon Bogojević Narath got upgraded, which now shows not only the animation of the dead rising from the graves, but also scenes from the political life of this unfortunate country.
If there’s anything to complain about in the series, then it is again occasional (but rarer than elsewhere) outbursts of amateur acting, or attempts to associate fictional characters with real ones (always quite unnecessarily pun that diverts attention from the plot ) and perhaps a bit of confusion in the first episodes, when neither the main character nor the viewers understand what the characters names are, or what's their goal. But given the clever unraveling in later episodes, the latter is more or less forgivable.
Judging by the response of the audience, the public feedback, and the objective quality of this series, HRT is now really in trouble. Contrary to the long-standing beliefs of lazy and stingy producers, domestic viewers are interested in 'more demanding' domestic content and cry for domestic series that will not make them uncomfortable. Already the second portion of the series that is shown every working day has sat very nicely to that underrated crowd and now they could ask their public service for more. And did they still get it? And is it at least on the trail of 'Rest in Peace' quality? Because we’re talking about a series that’s not just 'good considering what domestic series can be like'. We are talking about a series that even the Danes would not be ashamed of. It's just that the Danes, with their long-standing Borgenian democracy, would find it a little harder to grasp it.
The second season of 'Rest in Peace' has started, people reacted furiously to the actors' dialect
After the first, intriguing episode, the Istrians rebelled, dissatisfied with 'mimicking' of the accent. The team of the series has already commented on the criticism on its official Facebook page.
The second season of the superb series "Rest in Peace" started last night. This time, journalist Lucija Car (Judita Franković) disturbs the spirits in a small Istrian town. Her partner in the series is Goran Navojec, a detective from Pula, and in one of the main roles is the excellent Anja Šovagović Despot, whom we see in the role of Marija, a traditional Istrian. After the first, intriguing episode, the Istrians rebelled, dissatisfied with 'mimicking' of the accent. The team of the series has already commented on the criticism on its official Facebook page:
Dear Istrians and Istrians, do not be too angry at the pronunciation of your dialect in the series. We took it quite seriously, but we knew we would not be able to satisfy everyone. Five consultants worked on the series, mostly the best Istrian actors and playwrights. But ... neither can anyone pretend to be born with that dialect, nor do you all speak the same (put somebody from Labinj and Rovinj in the same room and listen), and neither can the series be understood by everyone, if you go all the way into the dialect. We know that some excuses will make your ears grow with that language and that melody, and we apologize for that in advance. We hope that the story and good actors will keep you by the screens after all. And for some future times and another series in your dialect - send children to acting lessons! There are not enough of them.
What's your opinion on actors take of the Istrian dialect? Do you like the series?
If this was an American series, it would surely get an Emmy
We haven't seen so many effective performances on small screens for a long time: Judita Franković and Goran Navojec have the chemistry that is necessary for the relationship between their protagonists, but I don't think I'll be wrong if I single out Dragan Despot, Nina Violić and Anja Šovagović Despot. If they were in America, they would compete for the Emmy award, and this way they will have to settle for a few nominations for the Croatian Acting Award.
Without dilemma, "Rest in Peace" was the first full-blooded crime series in the history of Croatian television and a solid international success: who knows if there will ever be anything from this project, but Hollywood Lionsgate bought the format for the US market to adapt it there, thus for the global audience. Strangers were certainly attracted by the unusual dramatic structure, because in the story of forgotten graves in the former Vukovšćak prison, two narrative lines ran in parallel, in the first we followed the adventures of protagonists exploring a neglected cemetery, and in the second the fates of people who ended up in it. After a long struggle - HRT was going through one of the many editorial turbulences - it was finally broadcast in early 2013, well received in the media and solidly watched (despite the not overly attractive slot on Friday just before 10 PM), which was a sufficient incentive to accelerate preparations for the realization of the second season.
"Rest in Peace 2" will have its premiere next Monday, and HRT has meanwhile learned something about the placement strategy: we will watch ten episodes every day (except on weekends), as was done with the series "Black-White World", only this one will be on the program a little later, at 9 PM, because of some scenes of violence and sex. A wise decision, because in series with elements of detection, viewers sometimes forget what was going on last week.
Ring produkcija, the executive producer for HRT, did a great job again. The second season differs from the first in that the majority of the action takes place in the present time. There are a few flashbacks, and at first, you don't even know where to place the conversations led by Lucija Car (Judita Franković) and the assassin Mate Šušnjara ) in the prison room for visitors, however, these are just incidental ingredients. Already in the first episode, Lucija is on a new task, her boss Zora Agnezi (Jelena Miholjević) sent her to Istria to make a report on the alleged cult that sacrifices victims, but the politicized and socially self-confident journalist is much more intrigued by the case of asbestos poisoning in the Chemix factory.
There is a riot in the factory, the workers are pressuring the new CEO, the Hungarian Zsoltan Barath (Jernej Šugman), whose spokesman is Lucija's former boss, the corrupt Zdeslav Tokić (Boris Svrtan), there is a suicide, then murder, and an important role in all this plays Marija Križan (Anja Šovagović Despot), Lucija's temporary landlady and the head of the ancient cult, which really exists, but functions much differently than many assume. After being disappointed in her boyfriend, a politician in the first season (played by Ozren Grabarić), Lucija settled down with her colleague from the university, police spokesman Željko (Luka Dragić), but even that relationship will probably not last long, because, in Istria, she fell for police inspector Romano Soršak (Goran Navojec). She is also courted by the elderly Bruno Vilinski (Boris Cavazza), former director of Chemix (in socialism, before privatization it was the asbestos fiber factory ), who retired from work, arranged a beautiful house, and switched to winemaking. The series occasionally acts as a domestic version of CSI, the circumstances and details of the murder are explored in detail, the plot with the cult of Marija Križan is associated with fashionable stories about the supernatural, but as in the first season, dissecting our transition period is in the story's core. Occasionally it is not known who is bribing whom, the seemingly laudable moves of ministers are revealed as a selfish calculation, politicians cooperate with the police and the media when they should not - in short, all this is an inextricable set of interests that we witness every day in newspapers and online portals and television. It is especially interesting that an important role is played by veteran investigative journalism Ines Polić (Nina Violić), who is very freely modeled after our Jasna Babić (although we also find hints of Hanna Holm from the series "Borgen").
It is a great idea of the creators of the series (Dario Vince, Saša Podgorelec, Ivan Turković Krnjak) to place the majority of the plot in Istria, which has almost never existed for our television so far. The fictional town of Globin is made up of the locations of Gračišće, Draguć, and Plomin, and its natural beauties are in a strange discrepancy with the dark twists of the story.
Director Goran Dukić was well aware of this: after the cult short feature film "Mirta Learns Statistics", he went to America and this is his first serious and ambitious engagement in Croatia. He has directed all ten episodes and it is excellent, the moods change imperceptibly, the plot is easy to follow, the characters are recognizable, and he is especially good at working with actors. We haven't seen so many effective performances on small screens for a long time: Judita Franković and Goran Navojec have the chemistry that is necessary for the relationship between their protagonists, but I don't think I'll be wrong if I single out Dragan Despot, Nina Violić and Anja Šovagović Despot. If they were in America, they would compete for the Emmy award, and this way they will have to settle for a few nominations for the Croatian Acting Award.
shakytakes_22_07_2014
in video
shakytakes_17_06_2014
in video
We did not earn anything from the series in Croatia, but we raised the standard
Dario Vince, owner of Ring produkcija and Saša Podgorelec, the main screenwriter of the series "Rest in Peace" bought by Lionsgate, reveal how it was created and what awaits us in the second season.
The original script, excellent cast, high production level, creative directors, screenwriters, DOP, and the rest of the team that created the series "Rest in Peace" are responsible for the worldwide success of this drama series bought by the world's leading production company Lionsgate ("Mad Men", "Weed"). Dario Vince, author of the format and owner of the production company Ring produkcija, and the main screenwriter of the series Saša Podgorelec revealed how a series about a journalist and a retired prison guard who reveals the dark secrets of people buried in a prison cemetery was made.
- At the beginning of 2011, HRT announced a competition for drama series with an emphasis on more serious drama series. Among the many things that came into our hands was the synopsis of the series written by Koraljka Meštrović. Some things in that text I really liked but I wasn’t completely satisfied and I knew I would change it. In that story, there was only a prison guard investigating the cases of the buried, there were humorous parts, but there was no politics, no media, no female character. As Koraljka did not want to change the text, we bought the rights from her, and later I introduced changes in the story itself. My colleague Robert Tomljenović also took part in this creative part and later during the filming. Due to various turmoils on HRT, we waited until the end of 2011 for approval to be filmed, and the series began airing in January 2013 - says Dario Vince. Exploring the recent past, which is the key to our present, has become the main topic of the series and it is logical that the media, politics, intelligence services played the role in it.
- We thought that we should take some steps in cleaning up in front of our doorstep. With the story, we touched on some topics that bother and provoke certain people, but our intention was not to set theses and judgments, we looked for the roots of the problem that our whole society is facing. That is why a journalist was a more logical choice than a police officer or a detective, which is the case in Western societies. It was logical for it to be a woman because I think that in today's society, women are more valuable when it comes to the truth, and men are more valuable when it comes to lies - explains Vince.
Saša Podgorelec told us what his guiding thought was in writing the screenplay, in which screenwriters Ivor Martinić and Ivan Turković Krnjak also contributed.
- I got four already written episodes that suffered from one problem - too much noise in the channel and a lot of cluttered motifs that created confusion and everything had to be rearranged a bit so the series can "breathe" on the narrative level and give space to the characters. The basic principle I was guided by was not to impose a story on the audience but to draw them into it - says Podgorelec and reveals which episode is his favorite.
- Episode eight in which the cancer-wound of this society is themed - stolen money for the weapons during the war. He adds that the directors of the series, Goran Rukavina, who was the creator of the story with Koraljka, and Kristijan Milić did a great job, with which Vince agrees.
- Milić and Rukavina have different styles, which was a potential danger. Psychological situations suit Goran and he is an artistically gifted director because he speaks more with pictures than words, while Kristijan is a master of action and he swam like a fish in water in those scenes - says Vince.
Of course, a large part of the burden was on the backs of the main actors Miodrag Krivokapić and Judita Franković, who, Vince tells us, was originally scheduled for the lead role.
- Judita repeated many times how surprised she was when she got the role because she came to the casting unprepared, but she didn't know that while writing the main female character I saw her and her energy in Lucija. The whole project was very ambitious, from the filming locations to the extensive gallery of characters for which almost the entire domestic acting scene was engaged.
- The project was demanding, and the price is that we did not earn anything on the series. But, on the other hand, we have a project that we are not ashamed of and that has raised the standards in the market and determined the direction in which we should work - says Dario.
This was noticed by people from the Swedish company Eccho Rights, who enthusiastically offered Ring produkcija to distribute the series, which attracted a lot of attention at the Seoul Television Drama Festival, where "Rest in Peace" was included in the official competition. It was there, Vince believes, that the series caught the attention of people from Lionsgate.
- The negotiations lasted for three months, they were exhaustive and I learned a lot from them - he says.
The guys revealed to us that they’re done with six of the ten episodes of the second season in which, unlike the first season, there won’t be strict divisions to make each episode a separate story. Now they are waiting for the result of negotiations with HRT.
A Croatian noir that even the Danes would not be ashamed of
Knowing what banalities our screenwriters are amused by, it is confusing that for years they have been disregarding incredibly exciting stories - local crime tales, mafia sagas, melodramatic plots, and political thrillers that remain cinematically intact. "Rest in Peace" is the first domestic drama product that shows common sense and interest in the themes and stories that surround us, and most of those I have had the opportunity to see have the potential for a feature film.
"This is a robbery! Hands up! Give me those biscuits or I'll glue you to death!" shouts the disguised Sandra Lončarić Tankosić, pointing a 'gun' to stick prices in the store at Ksenija Marinković's back. "You have to drill holes for your eyes or take a thinner stocking," Marinković answers coolly. Thus, two saleswomen in a neighborhood store who found themselves in debt were inspired to rob a post office with stockings on their heads and children's guns in their hands. This is the summary of the fourth episode of the series "Rest in Peace", otherwise a true story from Zagreb that newspaper readers had fun with a few years ago. The two of them really robbed a bank (not the post office as in the series) and then fled with bags full of money - by tram.
We took the episode with the robbers as an example of a good screenwriting flair, but we could also retell another one, such as the one about a Serb from Zagreb who died in prison in the early '90s, during the Zec family executions, in an atmosphere of general alarm, paranoia from snipers and anyone not bearing the Croatian surname. Knowing what banalities our screenwriters are amused by, it is confusing that for years they have been disregarding incredibly exciting stories - local crime tales, mafia sagas, melodramatic plots, and political thrillers that remain cinematically intact. "Rest in Peace" is the first domestic drama product that shows common sense and interest in the themes and stories that surround us, and most of those I have had the opportunity to see have the potential for a feature film. Watching the series, I wondered if it was really possible that no filmmaker was intrigued by the atmosphere of the cities on alert at the beginning of the war or that no one noticed that bittersweet story about bank robbers. Couldn’t they be some kind of our transitional Thelma and Louise, no longer cashiers who want to go to sea, but just squander the rent money?
In addition to the thematic breakthrough, "Rest in Peace" brings other novelties. Namely, this is our first series created in collusion with trends across the border, primarily with the so-called Scandinavian Noir. Unfortunately, so far we have had the opportunity to see only the Danish series "Forbrydelsenr" (this was the case at the time of writing, later shown "Borgen" and "Bron" were shown), but its impact is very noticeable. For example, in positioning the main character, the stature of a fragile but strong and self-confident girl played by Judita Franković (I am convinced that her refreshing performance and acting from another register has to do with the fact that she did not attend the Academy of Dramatic Arts), very similar to the stubborn and intelligent policewoman Lund. Also, the way in which the parallel actions are intertwined, the treatment of a larger number of episodic characters, as well as the tonality that counts on adult and mature audiences, undoubtedly reveal good role models. Some directing or filming procedures do not hide that they were borrowed from "Forbrydelsen", for example, the use of music and an accentuated montage sequence, and in creating the atmosphere is a special contribution of director of photography Mario Sablić who, instead of the usual three shades of gray for domestic television products, gave the series 50 shades of brown.
Directors Goran Rukavina and Kristijan Milić should be acknowledged for their clear and dynamic plotting, the choice of locations is also excellent, but if something is a real sensation, then it is the acting achievements. And I do not mean the already mentioned Judita Franković, nor Miodrag Krivokapić, an actor superstar from whom, after all, we do not expect anything other than a top performance, but acting as a whole. Namely, for ten years now, drama production has been dominated by soap operas, so today we see actors and actresses who grew up in them and almost can't act differently than they learned there, which means that a good actor is the one who manages to pronounce all written sentences in less than three takes. This soap opera tone has completely taken over television, and it is increasingly penetrating the film, so the fact that "Rest in Peace" looks and sounds like a good film and not like a bad telenovela is a real success. You probably know that feeling when you're ashamed of yourself on the couch for someone's awful acting on the screen, and that's really not the case in this series.
Recently, Belgrade's Danas chose "Where the Wild Boars Go" produced by the then Television Zagreb as the best ex-Yu series of all time, but what would happen if the same question referred to the period from 1990? In our country, the only more ambitious series in the 90s was awful "Stormy Silences", a decade later the outrageously expensive and pathetic Vrdoljak's "Long Dark Night", Hrvoje Hribar with "New Age" didn't exactly "nailed it", so only soap operas and sitcoms with humor only slightly upgraded in relation to "Someone Asked About Me?" came to life.
Thus, "Rest in Peace" without real competition took the title of the best Croatian drama series since 1990.