Fine Dead Girls
Fine Dead Girls
| 17 November 2007 (USA)
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Iva and Marija, a young lesbian couple, rent an apartment in Zagreb, in a building that seems to provide a quiet and safe environment for their love, but over time the atmosphere in the building becomes more and more threatening. The elder landlady Olga dominates the building. Other tenants include her calm husband, her grown-up son Daniel who has a crush on Iva, the prostitute Lidija, an abused housewife, a widower keeping the corpse of his newly deceased wife, a gynecologist performing abortions in one flat of the house, and an ex-soldier who regularly plays martial music at night. After Olga finds out that Iva and Marija are lesbians, the situation escalates .

Reviews
Michael Daniels

What these movie does is to show the intolerance, racism, and abuse in Croatia and it is laid bare for us to witness first hand, in this sometimes comedic, sometimes deeply disturbing snapshot of post war Croatia. One wonders why this country went to war when we witness what is left. It is sad to see such intolerance, homophobia and hatred of minorities, which, according to Amnesty International, still continues today. It is a great tribute to the makes of this film that they have had the courage to lay bare their country's legacy for the world to see.

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H@ni ElfTheWizard

It starts like a promising movie, that will offer tense atmosphere and the camera close ups of the ugly faces of the neighbors, leads to that.But the suspension is soon gone, some illogical actions (like not calling the police even it is obvious that there is a dead old women in the apartment) than static, puppet like persons strained in this neighborhood not connected what so ever with the world outside its boundaries, stereotypes (two skinheads, worn out soldier)… So I was also stacked within those boundaries, not many questions or conflicts, left at will of the director, who doesn't care about the audience. I just watch and watch, indifferently, till it finished.Rosemary's Baby is a good example for me, of keeping suspension and let you and the world involved in the story.That all i have to say about this movie.

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badidosh

Functioning less than a straight-out thriller than an intriguing slice of life in a golden-hued Zagreb in the early naughts, "Fine Dead Girls" presents a decrepit building in the Croatian capital as a microcosm of the former Yugoslav nation and its inhabitants as they try to pick up the pieces from a bloody not-so-distant past. Dalibor Matanic's saga liberally borrows from a lot of classics, but at least he vividly captures the tension and paranoia emanating from each individual, like an ex-army man who ostensibly beats up his wife, to a physician who does illegal abortion in his topmost room, and a man who can't let go of her wife even in death. At the center of such palette of idiosyncratic characters are a young lesbian couple played with understated effectiveness by Olga Pakalovic and Nina Violic. The two initially hide their relationship from a homophobic landlady with a highly chauvinistic son, but are eventually found out and soon find themselves spiraling into societal and moral conflicts. At its best, "Fine Dead Girls" is a meditative introspection into the Croatian psyche during the immediate post-war period, in which various societies struggle to forge an identity following the Balkan conflicts. Matanic doesn't give the film enough momentum to sustain an effective third act but "Fine Dead Girls" deftly paints a convincing portrait of a nation irresolutely trying to welcome every member with open arms regardless of orientation, even as it's raring to return to its feet.

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cabrilo

This movie gets my 7/10. It's not a masterpiece, but it still is a very good movie and I would recommend anyone to see it. The topic of intolerance towards "other" sexualities has been dwelled on for a while, but this is somewhat of an unique perspective, since it comes from Croatia.The story about two lesbians who fall victims of intolerance blends rather nicely with other generalized xenophobic or just plain "weird" traits of the local society. E.g. one of the characters beats his wife and seems to hate everything that's Serbian, so a separate story could probably be told about that family.Acting is good, but not perfect. It seems to me that many Croatian actors act very conservatively (you have a feeling that they are uncomfortable swearing, or that they just came out of theater where they did Shakespeare). But, it doesn't ruin the movie, it's still very good.

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