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ну кто знает, может Горан постарается на Европу продвинуть.

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что не хочет играть злодеев...и особенно русских

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Надеюсь ,это не усташ какой-нибудь

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Русские и злодеи у него на одной доске стоят?

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Люблю я мущщин в белых рубашках...

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А я в форме! Тем более, что Горану она ОЧЕНЬ идет. Верно?

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скачать отрывок из фильма

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ну не здоровенный

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Это который ты мне переписала?

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Хорватия хочет «Длинную мрачную ночь» послать на Оскар.

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Хорватия хочет «Длинную мрачную ночь» послать на Оскар.

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«Водитель для Веры»

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.....видать, разочаруюсь

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Но как это непатриотично!

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Но как это непатриотично!

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Голливуд собираются снять ремейк российского блокбастера «Ночной дозор». Как сообщил гендиректор «Первого канала» и продюсер фильма Константин Эрнст, сценарий американской версии будет сильно отличаться от прототипа, хотя общие сюжетные линии сохранятся.
Действие голливудской версии фильма будет происходить в трех странах – Японии, Штатах и России. В роли Антона Городецкого К. Эрнст хотел бы видеть «звезду уровня Брэда Питта или Джонни Дэппа».

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Голливуд собираются снять ремейк российского блокбастера «Ночной дозор».

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«Водитель для Веры» едет от Украины!

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Long Dark Night



Description:
Goran Visnjic, best-known as Dr. Luka Kovac on «ER,» missed several episodes of his television series in order to star as a World War II partisan fighting Nazi invaders in this epic history directed by his father-in-law. Writer-director Antun Vrdoljak experienced first-hand the events he depicts in the film. In addition to acting and directing for theater and television, he was elected the first Vice President of the Republic of Croatia, and also served in Parliament.

Director: Antun Vrdoljak

Date: 1/9/2005
Time: 1:30:00 PM
Runtime: 178
Category: Political
Cast: Goran Visnjic, Katarina Bistrovic-Darvas, Mustafa Nadarevic, Ivo Gregurevic, Goran Navojec
Venue: Regal Palm Springs
Country: Croatia
Section: Awards Buzz: Foreign Language Oscar Submissions

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Dr 1600 (1/16/05 2:15 am)
Впечатление о фильме.

Last Sunday, however, was a different matter. I saw three hours of historical epic like I haven’t seen in a long time. I live 90 minutes west of Palm Springs, and with some substantial goading from a pal to help things along, I ordered a ticket to see “Long Dark Night”. Sunday morning, I headed out in a downpour, wondering if I wasn’t slightly mad. What can I say? The film was wonderful. It took a while to get used to reading the subtitles and to get into the story, but once the mass of characters, particularly GV’s Iva Kolar, were introduced, and the spectre of Nazi Germany loomed (Croatia had, at least at that time, a sizeable first and second-generation German population), the story rolled along, and I was engrossed. It jumped time rather significantly in places, and you occasionally lost the progress of some of the secondary characters, but Iva’s story was well developed and very interesting, indeed, as you followed him from his college days, to is involvement with the partisans during WWII to his role in the post-WWII communist government, to his downfall at the hands of Tito’s loyalists and the final resolution. And GV was amazing. Iva was a different character than any I’d seen him play before, and to see him act in his own language brought out all sorts of nuances I’d never seen. He was fabulous.
And as a bonus, he sang! In the film, Iva has a good friend named Mata, who plays a traditional instrument called a tamburiza. In the beginning of the film, Mata and Iva, wearing wonderful traditional folk costumes of the period, meet a group of friends in a local cafe. The music starts, the beer flows, and Mata and Iva lead the singing. He had a very pleasant baritone voice, and the scene was charming.
My only regret is we seem to have lost a lot of Mata’s story, and he was a lot of fun. The choppiness was explained later: the original version was a 12 part series for Croatian TV. It would be wonderful to see. The film version doesn’t have prospects for an American release yet, but they have gotten it on DVD in the last few days, so perhaps it will make it out that way.

а вот так Иво поет

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Dr 1600(1/16/05 3:10 am)
-------------------------------------------------- ------------------
Now, the question on everyone’s lips. Was GV there? Yes. He came in at the end of the film and did a Q&A with the audience. His pride in this film was clear, as was his excitement at the prospect of an Oscar nomination. He talked a bit about ER, and there were some oblique references suggesting Luka’s going to be around come September. After the Q&A, he hung around a while longer, answering questions, shaking hands and chatting about anything from the film to flying with the Blue Angels. I managed to summon the courage to go down, chat for a minute, and shake his hand, then later to get my ticket signed. He was friendly, pleasant, funny, and personable, with no celebrity airs. Guys, I’ve lived in LA my whole life, and we tend to trip over the film and TV industries pretty regularly. I’ve seen my share of the good and the bad of celebrity, and honestly, I’ve rarely seen anyone wear his celebrity as lightly as GV does. I’ve always said I don’t like to meet the actors I admire because I prefer to keep my illusions intact. Well, I met this one, albeit briefly, and my illusions are now firmly reality. And that’s a nice feeling.

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Dr 1600
1/16/05 2:24 pm

I wish I could remember what, specifically he said about himself and the show, but it seemed clear he’s negotiating and next year is likely. Something about making more movies is all I recall. Drat! He was being cagey, which isn’t surprising if nothing is firm yet. Mostly he talked about taking time off to film Long Dark Night.

He mentioned he was going to show the film to John Welles some time soon, in the hope of getting some help releasing it, but it didn’t sound promising.
He was just as willing to chat about ER (he brought it up first) or other things as he was the film, and seemed in no hurry to be anywhere else. He seemed to be enjoying the conversation and the moment. That was nice.
...the theater was full, and they were selling «rush» tickets. So every seat was filled. About 2/3 of the audience stayed for the Q&A, which was nice, considering they didn’t announce he would be there until just before the film started.


It was funny about that. As I watched the film, I could see his face change comparably to how we saw Luka’s change from late 7th season to early 9th season. They must have filmed fairly in sequence, because the changes followed Iva’s growing older. During the Q&A, I asked over what period the film was shot, and he said he’d started it in late summer after the 7th season, taken a long period of time off during the 8th (which we remember) to film the winter parts, and finished the summer prior to the 9th. I was a bit surprised how accurate my observations had been.

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хорватском канале HRT1 можно будет смотреть телевизионную версию фильма «Длинная мрачная ночь»

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а хорватский язык вас не смущает? вы же там нифигушки не поймете.....или вы так - просто картинки посмотреть???

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кому: marketing@hrt.hr
копия: hrt@hrt.hr
предмет: Duga Mracna Noc DVD

To whom it may concern,

I am a member of a Goran Visnjic Internet fan forum that has members all over the world. Unfortunately, the movie, Long Dark Night - Duga Mracna Noc, was only shown in the USA during the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and most of us could not travel there for the screening. Therefore, I respectfully request that you produce a region-free DVD of the movie, Duga Mracna Noc, with Russian subtitles. In addition, I hope you will put the entire 50-hour TV series on region-free DVD with subtitles.

Finally, I hope you will keep my email address and let me know where I can purchase these DVDs on the Internet.

Thank you, for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Mrs. ******
свой город, Russian Federation

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сигарета.

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черные очки и сигарета.

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У тебя реалплейер установлен?

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by - vrdo_pegasus (Wed Feb 2 2005 06:08:16) (он является внуком Антуна Врдольяка, не врет т.к. он еще написал личное письмо американке с теми же новостями)

The film will be released in March in the whole Europe and in April, I think, In Canada And USA. It was released yesterday in Croatia, and for Bosnia and Herzegovina in February.
(Sorry I couldn’t write it quicker, but I was on a vacation.)

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“Q: What was it like for you to work with your son in law? Did you two had any fights on the set?

I would like you to show me a man who can menage to get in to fight with Goran. Not even my Ivana can accomplish that. On the set there was nor son in law nor father in law. If there was any intimacy, then that was the friendship that I have with all the actors and Goran as well. He is very talented and hard-working actor. I would have liked if this professional relationship that we had could have lasted more, but I hope we could refund that in our private life.

Q: For Croatian standards, Duga Mracna Noc was seen by a large number of people, Was one of the reasons that happened, Goran’s popularity?

Of course he was one of the reasons people came in to the movies, but not because of the fact that his name was on the bill board, but because of all he did for this movie. People love actors, actors are invitation for going to the movie theatres, but when the lights go off, the audience wants to see that actor did his maximum, they need him to be what they love most about him. I would say that in this case coincided Goran’s fame and his undoubtedly acting skill. In any other case there wouldn’t be so many people visiting movie theatres to see this movie.

Q: In what masseur did working in Hollywood changed Goran in professional way?

If you successfully replant a plant in another, bigger, garden, it doesn’t change it’s attributes, but continuous to grow and develop even more that it could the smaller garden. Goran continued his growth up there, in, much better climate conditions, though.

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Q: Can you remember any anecdote from the set?

Well, it’s hard for me to abstract anything now, but here’s one. It happened when we were filming our last summer day with Goran Visnjic. We ware very tight with our schedule, but that day Goran Ivanisevic was playing his great Wimbledon finale. The whole crew is intently looking at me, and Goran approaches and says: “Sjor Tonci*(look at the end of translation with the star mark ) This is not about us at all, we can’t care less, but we thought that you, as an Olympic guy, would never wanted to miss this match, so we organized watching...”. I ask where, then I notice a big tent behind my back with antenna protruding out from it and a television under it. I know that we are short with time (...) ”
(Here the text stops in the middle of the sentence, the ending must be on another page, but I couldn’t find it among the scanned ones.)

*Sjor [sh-y(as in yellow)-o-r] Tonci[T-o-n-ch-y] – Tonci is a nickname for Anton in Dalmatia. Sjor is a sort of title used in Dalmatian speech, is a bit archaic, but still used in some rear occasions... It comes from Italian word “signore”(don’t know really how to spell it, but you know what I mean, “mister” in Italian). I don’t know how to explain it’s use, it is not just simple as “sir”, but similar, it is used when a younger person is addressing someone elderly out of respect sometimes... In this case it was used to accentuate his Dalmation origin and to tease him about that a little but in the funny way. I find it very funny that Goran is addressing Vrdoljak in that way :-D...

Morana

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The first episode of Long Dark Night aired on HRT just finished... It lasted for 45 minutes, but I manage to properly watch only the last 20 minutes. I had unexpected guests, so I watched the first part only with one eye. Goran’s character doesn’t appear in the first 20 minutes, so I feel like I didn’t miss much.
All that I can say about the series so far is that I love the atmosphere that Vrdoljak build around his characters and the small but beautiful village in Slavonien in the snowy Christmas time...
In this first episode we are introduced with the main characters Iva and his friend Mata. Iva is a young student of Agronomy and he comes back home from Zagreb for the Christmas holidays. His reunion with his parents and his grandma is a touching moment. Mata is a perfect exemplar of what Slavonien people call “becar”[B-E(as in elephant)-CH-A-R], young man that loves women(and uses any chance to consummate that love), plays tamburica all day long and frequently falls into all sort of troubles. In this episode he comes in conflict with police because of the (justly) accusation for owning a rifle and he also has an incest intercourse with his cousin. What amasses me is the fact that everybody who means anything on Croatian acting scene is in this movie, from children actors to an elderly veterans of Croatian film and theatre! There was not even one unfamiliar face in this episode...
And I must point out one more thing that I couldn’t miss, and that is the fact that Goran Visnjic looks absolutely adorable! In this episode he’s done a lot of happy scenes with his “parents” and we all know how good he looks when he is laughing and smiling...

рs. My genuine impression of the film is very positive...

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А как насчет перевода серии?

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Dr1600

Everything in the video is also in the feature, I’m happy to report. I sat watching it grinning like a fool. The boy is Iva’s son, Luka. What you see is near the end of the film, when Iva has been imprisoned (thus the welts on his wrists). Luka becomes ill, and Iva is taken to the hospital to see him. I won’t give too much away so I don’t spoil the story, but I cried a good bit through that part of the film. The relationship between Iva and Luka is lovely, and is a pivotal part of the final third of the film.

The doctor with the glasses is Iva’s friend, Robbie. Robbie is a Jew, and Iva protects him during their student days. That comes around later in the story. I think GV said he’s played by his real-life best friend. The older man with the bandage on his finger is Iva’s father, aslo named Luka (do we detect a trend here?) In my «when we finally see Kovac’s father» dream episode, that actor will play him. He was fabulous, and they had a lot of familial chemisty onscreen.

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This episode is divided in two thematically different parts. In fist part we are following two parallel stories. Iva and Mata with his companions are reveling in the local tavern, and, on the other side, in the same tavern but in another room, there is a meeting of a German majority for the propose of devoting Hitler’s activities, it is obvious that few of them are against that, one of them, Bartol, revolt and the majority through him out and start beating him, he is aparently Mata and Iva’s friend and they jump to help him. After they chase away the bullies, Bartol joins them in the tavern. They continue reveling until the dawn(a lots of slightly boozy Iva singing :-D). In this first part of the episode we are also introduced with two characters belonging to village’s German majority, Joseph (wonderfully played by an actor from national theatre’s ensemble of my town, Rijeka – very proud of him), who is infatuated with Hitler, seduces barkeeper’s daughter(also German) and spends the night with her, the other character is Franc, who, after the tavern’s meeting returns to his family idyll, wife and little boy, although he is German by his origin he feels like a Croatian and when the war begins he joins the partisans.

The second part of this episode is taking place few months after, in spring of 1941. The train filled with soldiers (that ware mobilized in the army of Yugoslavian kingdom because of the war against Germany and it’s allays in which Yugoslavia capitulated after only 10 days) returning from the war, arrives in the village. Mata comes along with them. On his way back from the train station he is explaining to his father that Yugoslavia has fallen apart and that Croatia is now free. His father is a bit septic and asks how come he came with a German train. Mata answers that he wouldn’t mind traveling in devil’s bag if that means Croatia will be free. At this point we’re still not introduced with Iva’s part in the war.

Morana

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As you can see the clip begins with chaotic band playing and dancing with Mata in the middle. After a while we can see Iva talking to Bartol(the one that was beaten a few minutes ago by the German majority of the village): “Whenever I think of home and village, the first thing that bumps in to my mind is him[Mata] playing tamburica! Observe, he is never without tamburica”.
Mata shouts: “Stop! A Break!” then he aproches the table where Iva and Bartol are sitting and says:”And what am I without tamburica, my Iva? Just like Ana[the waitress, barkeeper’s daughterg] said, without tamburica I’m just another yokel. I would die without it, I swear...(kisses the tamburica and sits) And I almost crashed it on that big, stupid, Stefan’s head(little earlier in the fight). Dear mother of God, am I stupid... (refers to Iva) And you gave him a nice pounch (Iva just shrugs and smiles). Wait, why did we fought them in the first place?”
Iva: “How can you ask why! Bartol alone and a whole herd against him!”
Mata :”Oh, yeah, that’s right....”
Iva: “And Bartol is a neighbor....and a fine young man....Eh....And look what did they do to him!”(takes Bartols face teases him by showing his wounds. all laugh)
Bartol:”God knows what would had happen if you weren’t there to help me. They would beat the hell out of me!(takes the empty bottle in his hands ) Oh this needs to be replaced!”
Iva: ”Smart one, neighbor! Smart one!” (knocks whit his fists on the table )
Mata(refers to the band):”Come on, lets play.....that one...with birds....you know....Eh” (they start playing, when he wants to take a glass he tells to Iva)”Hold this”(drinks out of glass a little, then he starts using the glass as fiddlestick)
(after a while Iva takes a glass out of his hand and drinks it out)Iva: “Pooh, this is a brandy, ####!”
Mata:”Eh, you never change! You’re still the same Iva from the pasture, from the stream...The same one!”
Iva:”Well, the first one of us who forgets pasture, stream, first sweet cherrys in the spring, first snow in the winter...well, that’s the one who first died, even if that same one lived longer then all of us standing here! The hell the man who don’t remember his past!”
Mata(kiss Iva in his forehead): “Well the hell with him!”
Iva:”Come on, play Mata, that will be the best thing that will happen to me this night”
Mata(takes his tamburica, and say to the band):”Let’s play that rehearsed one!”
Iva(shouts):”Play Mata! Play! The whole night is ahead of us!”(smashes the glass on the floar)
The song lyrics:
“The fall comes, oh, my quince*
The flowers don’t smell as nice any more,
hyacinths, violets...”

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*the song could be referring to quince as a fruit, as a tree or a woman – “Dunja” is also a very common Croatian female name. It is very common used metaphor in Slavonian traditional songs to refer to fruit trees as they were a person. In this song it is probably left to a interpreter to interpretative this as it suits him best.
This song is kind of a “light motive”(I don’t know if this expression is used in English too. In Croation it means a motive which appears from time to time constantly during the whole artwork – it is used most commonly when interpreting literature) for this series so far. It is sang few times during the first episode, and also four or even five times during the second episode. This song sang by Croatian singer Oliver Dragojevic plays in the background on the end of each episode while the actors and producers names are displayed, and it is also a part of a soundtrack.

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150 баксов. Круто!

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это безумие!!!

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Есть что-то...

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Вот это я понимаю чекнутые!

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а ты его видела???

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Posted by morana on 2/25/2005, 11:24 am

The third episode starts with cold-blooded murder of Franz Kirchmeier, one of the Volksdeutschers(German majority in Croatia)who joined partisans in last episode. Short after he returned home (he fought in 10 day long war in old Yugoslavian Army) to his loving wife and son, Gestapo supported with local Germans bumped in to his house, he tried to run, but they cached him by the stream and shoot him with no hesitations. The local Nazis ordered his murder, because they consider Germans who think different then they do to be the biggest threat to Nazi philosophy. Joseph, the character that we ware also introduced with in last episode, (he is Nazi and he has a relationship with barkeepers daughter, Anna) is also Franz’s brother in law (Franz’s wife is Joseph’s sister) but he was also involved in ordering his murder.
Back in Zagreb Iva meets his friend Robert in Academic library and Robert tells him how he’s been thrown out of his rented room because the lady he rented it from find out he was Jewish. Iva told him that he has an extra couch in his room and offered Robert to move in with him. Then they received a notification to join the gathering organized for all students on the Academy’s sport stadium. They couldn’t know what was gathering about, but soon they realized that it is an Anti-Semitism motivating speech organized by the Ustasas. The orator (played by Rene Bitorajec, Goran’s good friend) demanded from all Jews to step out. After few moments of hesitation they started stepping out to prove that they are not ashamed of their nationality. Iva apprehended that nothing good can come out of this and he tried stopping Robert from stepping out, but Robert told him that his place is with his people and that he would feel like a traitor if he wouldn’t step out. When he stepped forward, Iva decided to sabotage whatever Nazis are trying to do and started yelling and encouraging crowd to step out along with their Jewish colleagues, and he seceded in his mission. After stepping out they spontaneously started singing “Gaudeamus”* the hymn of students. Iva and Robert escaped and hided in park. Iva offered Robert again to move in with him, but Robert told him that he has found a shelter and that now Iva is also in great danger because of what he did at the gathering. Robert proved to be right. When Iva went back home, the women that he rented room from, warned him not to go up in his room because Gestapo is already waiting him there. He didn’t see other way out of this situation but to run back home in his village and hope that the words of his deed wont reach that far. But he was wrong; in the train he meets Bartol (Volksdeutscher that was beaten up in the first episode by his people when he objected their opinion on Hitler) who tells him that he has find out that Nazis are waiting them on their village’s train station and that the smart thing to do would be to jump out of train before train reaches the station.

Morana

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They manage to escape the train station ambush, but the Ustasas police captured Iva as soon as he came home. Luckily Mata find out that Iva’s captured and reacted instantly. He used his high rank in Ustasas hierarchy both to free Iva and to revenge to the Ustasas police officer who arrested Iva and who harassed him (Mata) in first episode as Yugoslavian police officer. After he rescued Iva they are saying goodbye to each other and recollecting their childhood memories, they also come to unavoidable conflict because of their different points of view on current the war situation. But in the end they concluded that their friendship is stronger then anything, they said goodbye to each other and then Mata went to war. In the last scene of the episode Iva is asking his father for his blessing to quit collage for now and to go in to hiding.
*Gaudeamus – This song is considered to be a hymn of students and pupils in general. I don’t know if Latin tradition of singing this song is also preserved in other countries. In Croatia students are used to sing this song in some ceremonial events such as graduation parties and gymnasium proms. The song is written in Latin language and celebrates youth (but also admonish about the shortness of life and the necessity of living the quality life), Academy in general and professors.
Morana

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I must say I was a bit disappointed at first when I realized that in this episode there is only one short scene with Iva, but the episode is still more then worth mentioning. This episode’s purpose is for us to see the war from German’s angle, from their point of view. The main characters in this episode are Volksdeutcher Joseph and his family; his father, sister (who has lost her husband, Franz, in the last episode), and nephew. I’m glad to see that writers also used this episode to bring Joseph’s character to another level. Until now Joseph has been a “black an white” kind of character (“blind” follower of Nazi philosophy), but now the writers are reviling his hidden motives and his complex personality. He has grown up in this small Slavonian village and came from the family of Volksdeutchers, the Germans who came to this territory long time ago and during time melted with the local inhabitants. His father was primary a tradesman, but since it is impossible to make a decent living in Slavonien(it is a low land with a lot of arable mould) if you don’t do field work too, Joseph grow up in the field and also grow up to hate it, and the village way of living in general. As soon as he could, he convinced his father to let him go to Germany to study and live with his relatives and didn’t come back until the war started. He was infatuated with Nazi philosophy (although he grew up in Croatia, he always felt like a true German, un like his father) and he became a German officer. He always had a fear of growing up to be a nobody (a village tradesman like his father or just a regular villager), and he compensated that fear with becoming an officer. He enjoyed the importance that a uniform implies, and he couldn’t let anything endanger that, even if that means doing nothing while your coworkers are planning to murder of your brother in low.
He took pretty hard the fact that his family isn’t supporting Nazi ideology, and that they all stopped talking to him after Franz was murdered. He tried to justify himself by lying that he wasn’t in the village at that time, but they don’t believe him. Elza, Joseph’s sister had taken her husband’s death really hard, spatially after Nazis build some kind of military camp, headquarters right next to her house so she is forced to face her husband’s murderers everyday, eventually she starts losing her mind. One of the German officers starts to hit on her pretty aggressively and at the end of an episode he attempts to rape. Provoked by his aggression and the fact that he was one of her husband’s murders (I believe her mental health was also one of the factors) she shoots him at the same spot her husband was murdered.

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As for Iva, he has joined the partisans in this episode. At this point in the war partisans ware an illegal movement with small number of men hiding in woods and making all sorts of ambushes and sabotages for Germans and Ustasas. After one ambush in which three Germans lost their life and their truck was confiscated by partisans, in headquarters that are situated in Elza’s courtyard, high commander made an order to destroy neighbor village and to kill all 800 villagers. Purpose of this slaughter was to send a massage to partisans that their guerilla attacks wont work. In this episode we are witness of shocking execution of 20 men and women all ages that ware nailed working in the field. They ware tided up and then burned on the haystacks they were making. The worst thing is that this is most probably not a fiction, but an historic event…

Morana

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Posted by Kimberly Maggio on 3/4/2005, 3:08 pm

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to let you all know that we have another copy of «The long dark night» starring Goran Visnjic, on Ebay for sale. Since we had so much interest in the first copy. A wonderful woman from Belgium won the bid, we sent her the Euro version. Goran has been very generous in donating another DVD to our rescue group, and will again include a personalized note for the winning bidder. Goran and his wife Ivana, have donated generous amounts of time, money and help to the Perfect Paws organization. If you have any questions you can email me at perfectpaws@dslextreme.com or call 661-565-5525.
Thanks again for your support

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Ванька что-ли продает ДВД с фильмами мужа?

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тетке из благотворительности понравилось

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и скачивай.

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второй ДВД ушел за 860$!!!

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Дурдом!!!

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Posted by morana on 3/11/2005, 10:47 pm

In this weeks LDN episode Iva finally meets his future wife. Her name is Vera and she is a member of the partisan antifascist movement too. I was expecting a bit more of seducing rituals between them; in one scene they are flirting and in the second they are putting their cloths on… Well, what can you do, it is wartime, and they could both be dead tomorrow, so I guess there is no time for romance… But I better start from the beginning…
Most of the events in this episode are taking place in the improvised partisan headquarters (the whole facility looks more like a big old barn). In the last episode Elza had murdered German officer Stephan, and now she can’t go back home anymore, so she takes her son, runs to the woods and joins the partisans. Namely, since her husband was murdered by Nazis, who shortly after, build their headquarters practically in her front yard, she becomes a partisan spy, we can also see that her maddens which was so obvious in last episode was just a cover up, so the Nazis wouldn’t find her suspicious.
In partisans headquarters the first meeting of a new formed German partisan squad »Ernest Thellman« is being held. This is the first formed antifascist German squad in Europe; all members are Volksdeutchers from Croatia who decided to prove that not all Germans are Nazis.
Elza had provided classified information from the German headquarters about a train that arrives in the neighboring train station in the middle of the night with a very important shipment. The “Ernest Thellman” squad disguise themselves in Nazi solders and took over the station; they welcomed the train, evacuated it and then blow it up with explosive. This was a big box on the ears for the Nazis, they ware shocked when they found a ruins of the train in the mourning along with a big inscription on the wall that read: “German antifascist squad”.
Iva is still a newcomer among the partisans, but he yet in the beginning comes in to confrontation with one of the senior officers. Partisans captured two extremely young ustasa soldiers, and it is decided without any hesitation that they should be executed immediately. Iva strongly disputes with that decision and demands at least a fair trial for the two unfortunate soldiers. The promise him a trial but a half an hour later when he comes back from a short walk he finds out that they had held a “trial” without him and that the privates are already executed. He is shuddered with how ease are these men being executed, but he can’t do nothing about that. At this point he meets Vera. They started exchanging glances yet on the meeting. He’s been assigned to sleep in a room (barn) with her and two more solders (who ware on the watch that night). He walked in the room while she was washing her self and was naked from the waist up, at first he was spellbound but she didn’t felt awkward at all so they started to flirt, and one thing lead to another…(I’m hoping that Enza will up load that scene on her site).
Sorry for this weeks review being so short and confusing, but I had a tough weak and I wrote this in a hurry. I had a problem with inspiration and concentration, as well…

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There was something that I wanted to write when I was writhing a third episode review, but I didn’t manage to catch time and enough motivation to write it. When Nancy Lionstorm wrote her reply on my last review about this series being controversial in Croatia for allegedly equalizing sufferings of Volksdeuters and Croatian Jews, that motivated me to start writing my comment on that subject. I started writing it few days after my last post, but I didn’t finished it until now, so I’ll post it along with this review.
(I’ll first quote Nancy’s massage so my answer would be clearer)
Nancy Lionstorm: “Now I understand an earlier message you once wrote, telling us that the movie, LONG DARK NIGHT (2004) was controversial in your country and that Antun Vrdoljak was criticized by one professional movie critic for supposedly equating the Volksdeutchers’ suffering with that of Croatian Jews. I mean no disrespect to Croatian sensibilities, but as an outsider I must disagree with that film critic’s assessment. I think it was both brave and necessary for Mr. Vrdoljak to depict the experiences that motivated Croatian Volksdeutchers to embrace Nazism, as it was for him to depict the motivations of the Partisans. This bravery perhaps makes the director a “man ahead of his time” but I applaud Antun Vrdoljak for giving us a multi-dimensional picture of the time period.”
Critics didn’t criticize Vrdoljaks presentation of Volksdeuters, but Ustasas. Joseph is not the controversial character, Vrdoljak gave him a personality, but, by doing that, he didn’t justify his deeds in anyway (in the slaughter scene the women carrying the baby on her chests is screaming and begging, him particularly, to spare her child, but he doesn’t do a thing). The controversial character is Mata! I’m all for freedom of speech, but there is a certain atmosphere in Croatia at this time and that’s why I thing that his character is very dangerous. There are strong neo-Ustasas tendencies in Croatia at these days, and they are the strongest among young generations, which are easy to be manipulated with. When teenagers in America what to do something out of revolt they listen to Marilyn Manson or something similar, and in Croatia there is Thomson. He is the man who can gather the largest number of Croats on his concerts then any other Croatian musician, and I consider this to be a very disturbing fact. On his concerts, every other man in a crowd is warring Ustasa symbols including Thomson himself, he starts his performance with shouting Ustasas slogans and in his songs he directly promotes violence and xenophobia primary against Serbs. His songs contains lyrics like “We’re going to slaughter Serbs, they are going to float in Neretva(the river) to the Adriatic sea” and he is glorifying fascistic concentration camps as Jasenovac and Nova Gradiska in one of his songs.

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Thomson and neo-Ustasa followers are mostly war veterans, persons who had been hit by the war in all sorts of ways. Majority of his followers are low educated people that aren’t familiarized with all aspects of what Ustasa ware, all they know (or want to know) is that Ustasas ware constituted “Independent state of Croatia” 50 years ago and that they wanted to exile Serbs from their (Ustasas) country, when you look things from that perspective this has some since to a traumatized person who had lost a lot (so many people lost their dearest ones – fathers, husbands, brothers, suns…) in a war ten years ago because of the disputable Serbian aggression… There is a detail article about Thompson phenomenon here, I agree with every thing that is said in there but the writer’s conclusion that Croatia is a small, dark, fascistic Balkan state.
As for the series, I must say that I agree with that critic. Though I have seen only 5 episodes of the series, I haven’t seen nor one Ustasa doing anything wrong. All crimes, murders, incursions, fascistic proclamations, ware made by the solders warring Nazi uniform, all that we could see of Ustasas for now is Mata and he is presented as a nice guy full of life and a big patriot. There is one very important dialog between Iva and Mata in the end of the third episode. It goes something like this:

(Mata just rescued Iva who was arrested by the Ustasa police because of his engagement in that incident on university stadium. Standing on in a meadow, and saying goodbye to each other)
Mata: Watch your self, Iva. They’ll go after you again and then I wont be here anymore to help you. Aren’t you going to tell me why you have been arrested?
Iva: I’ve helped a friend.
Mata: A Jew!
Iva: Does it really matter?
Mata: You have betrayed your country because of one Jew?!
Iva: Because of a friend, Mata!
Mata: For me a homeland comes first!
Iva: Well then, I guess I’m more a people kind of person…
Mata: If I ware a proper Ustasa I would shoot you right now for saying things like that!
Iva: Then what are you if you’re not a real Ustasa?
Mata: I’m a Croat!
Iva: And I’m not a Croat?
Mata: No, a real Croat wouldn’t trade his country for a Jew!
Iva: For a man, Mata, a man!!!

And so on…. Finally Mata says to Iva that he loves him no matter what are his beliefs, and then a touching goodbye scene follows. Anyway, Mata’s point of view is exactly that today’s neo-Ustasas wants to hear….

Morana

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Iva: For a man, Mata, a man!!!

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