Political crime drama by renowned and prolific Rajko Grlić, It All Ends Here, opens the 71st Pula Film Festival.
Gunshots; then, a few seconds later, a shrill sound of a phone ring pierce the Pula Arena – the evening venue for the opening movie of the 71st Pula Film Festival – It All Ends Here. Soon after, we are introduced to the protagonist. Maks (Živko Anočić) who is a second chair attorney that has just helped acquit a high profile politician of double homicide. His client is Dinko Horvat (Boris Isaković) an on-the-nose amalgamate of many a Croatian gangster-politician.
The plot of the movie begins once Maks develops a conscience and refuses to help cover up Horvat’s privatization scrambles, cheating workers out of pay and finally murder. Still, Maks’ motives are far from noble. He does it for a mysterious woman from his past. She appeared at the sentencing and her involvement with the Horvat case is to be revealed later on.
The latest from the writer/director Rajko Grlić, celebrating its world premiere at the Pula Film Festival, is a confounding feature. The director is a well known staple of both Yugoslav and Croatian TV and film alike for stories such as a Balkan-wide popular The Unpicked Strawberries (Grlom u jagode) or acclaimed The Border Post (Karaula). It All Ends Here however often veers into telenovela territory instead of keeping the focus on political statements. It lessens the real-life stories that it takes inspiration from to envelop them into a cheap thrill drama and it is unusual to see both Grlić and Tomić fall so easily into cheap cliché.
How else do you explain a plot that involves an underage mistress to the future tycoon, video footage of a drunken break in taken on a spur of a moment using a camcorder (!) when smartphones are present in every pocket, a pang of conscience by a middle aged lawyer at just the right moment and a few scenes of sex to show the progressive nature of the film.
The final, wishful-thinking resolution belongs to Emir Hadžihafizbeović as one of the disgruntled workers who was cheated out of more than a year of his pay by Horvat. Hadžihafibegović is a talent that lifts up every scene and every movie he appears in. He is present in no more than 15 minutes of It All Ends Here and delivers otherwise sketchy dialogue with ease and conviction. He is in one scene with Ksenija Marinković, as the representative of the workers, and it is a delight to see them bounce off each other. There is a much more interesting and engaging film to be seen here than the focus on the decadent lives of the bourgeoisie that the director chose.
While the look of It All Ends Here proves a maturation in Croatian film with believable settings and thought through costume design, the actual story leaves a lot to be desired. While the director seemingly throws punches at the corruption ingrained into Croatian society, his melodramatic plot twists give an impression of a person wanting to appear to be a voice of those who suffered injustice, but never actually becomes one. Instead, regardless of intention, robbing victims of such crimes in Croatian society of their lived experiences for cheap thrills.
Our writer Ramona Boban-Vlahović is on the ground at the 71st Pula Film Festival in Croatia, taking place on 11-18 July 2024.
