A real time, high concept, webcam farce from Serbia, Death of a Man in the Balkans is clever, original and by turns wickedly funny and thought provoking.A lonely composer commits suicide in front of his webcam.The entire film unfolds from the eye of his computer as a neighbour Aca arrives. As first witness he stays in the apartment to wait for the police but, as the time goes by, many other neighbours start to interfere. To pass the time they drink, eat and play chess while remembering him, pitying him and praising his music even though they cannot remember his name. Soon the undertaker, a real estate agent, a pizza delivery guy and medical officials arrive. It is not until the police arrive however, that they discover the prescence of the webcam which has been recording everything. From that moment on behaviours and relationships change as the groupall feel the need to justify previous statements and actions, reflecting a broad, satirical picture of our society.
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This project builds on a tradition of successful films that have rested on the unity of time, place and action, but due to commercial content, which enables communication with the audience, this film is also a big step forward into a new, authentic form. In this movie all takes place in an apartment in one day. In one shot. The whole story was taken from the perspective of a web camera. During the film, cinema time and real life time are a match – they last 80 minutes. As an author, I was interested in events after someone’s suicide. Since each section in the film language marks a passage of time, I recorded this story in one take in order to make an image of the hyper realistic environment of the time and place I live in.
Miroslav Momčilović
Recommended rating: Cert 15.
