Milić and the horrors of war
The tragedy of the former Yugoslavia took centre stage today at the Festival del Cinema Europeo di Lecce. In The Living and the Dead, Croatian filmmaker Kristijan Milić shows “the cyclic nature of war”, depicting everyday horror – among mined fields, ambushes and death squads – of two troops of soldiers in Bosnia, one in 1943 and the other 50 years later.
Written by Josip Mlakić (adapting from his novel), the film does not lack metaphors – it ends in a cemetery and lead Filip Sovagovic plays a symbolic dual role that is the link between the different time periods.
The director uses a different style for each of the periods. This is most obvious in the photography, which is realistic for the recent past and sepia-toned in the WWII segments, in order to heighten, “says Milić, “the mythical, almost epic, vision of that war”.
The Living and the Dead’s visual look comes from DoP Dragan Marković, who due to the extended shoot (which began in December 2004 and ended in late April two years later) replaced Mirko Pivćević. What is most striking about the film, however, is its attempt to interpret the drama of the war through genre cinema.
While the anti-military statement against violence ostentatiously accompanies the macabre details, the horrors depicted seem secondary to the film’s horror style, that dips into Grand Guignol even. “This is my personal style,” assures Milić (who has so far directed mostly ads and music videos), “which was influenced by the films of great filmmakers such as Walter Hill and Sam Peckinpah, and naturally Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket”.
(Translated from Italian)
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