What A Country! / Koja je ovo država
Croatia, Serbia, Poland 2019
Directed by Vinko Brešan, comedy, 117 min, eng subtitles, 16+
Written by Mate Matišić
With Krešimir Mikić, Nikša Butijer, Lazar Ristovski, Sebastian Cavazza, Dražen Kühn, Daniel Olbrychski, Goran Bogdan
What links a Croatian army general haunted by guilt and suicidal thoughts, a gloomy minister of the Croatian government who, while on an official prison visit, voluntarily locks himself up in a prison cell, a group of energetic pensioners who dig up and steal a coffin with the remains of the Croatian president, Franjo Tuđman? Well, of course, these are the main characters in the labyrinthine story of this wacky and delirious film. What a Country! is a brilliant political comedy which dares to poke at Croatian taboos. While it hovers over the rawness of Croatia´s traumatic past and national conscience, it throws some slapstick humour into the mix to overlay some rather dark resonating undertones.