"Banović Strahinja" (Duke Strahinja) is the title of ancient Serbian epic poem that probably have some basis in real life - characters from the poem really lived at the second half of 14th century and their names are remembered. Some 600 years later, the movie was made and I clearly remember watching this movie in cinema with my mother - it was a huge cinematic spectacle at the time and somewhere in my memories I cherish the occasion, not so much because of the movie as a gentle look back at my younger self and my late mother sitting next to me.
Some 32 years I found this movie again on DVD and was very curious how will I see it now.
Just as I remembered, it is quite a gruesome experience since story is set in medieval times and everybody looks either very dirty or stern or both - Italian actor Franco Nero played the main role (guest star?) and he does the best he could with attempting to be heroic and strong in another language that he doesn't even speak. Far juicier roles were Dragan Nikolić as Turk who burns his castle & kidnaps his wife and Rade Šerbedžija as his brother -these two guys actually got to act in negative roles that were far superior and interesting than one-dimensional Serbian nobility. Both show surprising humanity in their characterisations even as "bad guys" but of course I was not aware of this decades ago when I was probably swallowing epic story about brave Strahinja. There are two plots here actually - we are to understand that Serbian kingdom will be attacked by huge Turkish army and everybody is worried about it, on another hand Strahinja goes to follow Turks who destroyed his castle and took his wife with them. Serbian nobility lead by Strahinja's dignified father-in-law refuses to help as they assume she is sinner now and as good as dead. Full action follows now with lots of sword fighting, cruelty, screaming and someone even get impaled as Turks do - according to oral tradition, Strahinja brings his wife back home and refuses to have her punished as sinner, he rides with her on a horse like some medieval gentleman.
Naturally I see the movie a little bit differently now - it is clumsy, overacted and obviously made within a permitted budget. Franco Nero has nothing much to do but being "heroic" and dead serious, as I have mentioned, bad guys have far interesting roles. His young wife (Sanja Vejnović) is more of a symbol of passive medieval woman than real character - at the beginning of the movie she washes Strahinja's feet before the dinner, than accepts being kidnapped (even falling a little for her kidnapper who cleverly does not force himself on her) and at the end meekly accepts she will be punished & blinded as adulteress. Somewhere in the crowd there is an elder nun who was blinded long time ago and her unforgettable, bald face and closed eyes are stark contrast with young Vejnović who waits for her turn. It is quite a barbaric scene, with her whole family assembled to see the punishment, bells ringing and church hymns being sung until in the nick of time Strahinja decides he wants to keep her for himself, punished or not (even with her forehead tattooed now, Muslim way). This whole story actually happens in a twilight of Serbian kingdom as very next year all these aristocrats will perish under Turkish invasion at battle of Kosovo.
1 comment:
I have no idea how I was introduced to this movie. Clumsy or not, I liked it, maybe because I see nothing but American movies most of the time. Nice to see something from another part of the world for once!
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