SVETINJA (HOLY)
20.27 min, 2005,
CAMERA, SCREENPLAY, DIRECTION
Dobrila and Dobrivoje Pantelić,
EDITING
Milan Pantelić
PRODUCTION
Običaji Rađevine: Tri-D.
The film Svetinja is a visual homage to the ox as a peasant's assistant and friend, and without them there used to be no life in a Serbian home. Impeccable photography, reminiscent of the work of Tomislav Pinter in Ante Babaja’s film Breza, pure form without feature structures, relatively long shots that follow the action in the open space of the village under the snow, as well as delayed and very reduced narration, seem to bring this film closer to the expressive form of observation film. However, it would be more correct to look for role models in the Yugoslav documentary school of the 1960s and 1970s, and its intellectual and symbolist aesthetics, as well as similar poetics of certain authors who are active today (V. Perović). Namely, if we carefully analyze the editing structure of the film, especially certain decorative details such as the game of looking at and from the windows of houses or repeated shots of sledding, it becomes clear that long shots of oxen moving through the snow to be given hay in the village center and brought back home, in fact perform the function of an aestheticized illustration of the main idea brought by the narrator in his short narration — the ox is sacred for the Serbian peasant. In that sense, although the visual properties of this film deviate from the usual approach nurtured by the Pantelić family, it remains true to their film ideal — storytelling with a strong and clearly verbalized ethical message.
VUKOSAVA
14.44 min, 2014
CAMERA, SCREENPLAY, DIRECTION
Dobrila and Dobrivoje Pantelić,
EDITING
Milan Pantelić
PRODUCTION
Običaji Rađevine: Tri-D.
Vukosava is an example of a purely derived film portrait. The film introduces us to a sharp narrator from the village of Osečina, who was 81 years old at the time of filming. Vukosava tells her life story, intertwining it with singing songs from her youth: "It's so beautiful in the Serbian region, as beautiful as in paradise." Vukosava talks about the importance of work, which helped her succeed in forgetting about all the misfortunes and pains she suffered, as well as her love for singing songs and dancing the kolo dance. These songs, which Vukosava sings in a weak, though still sonorous voice, often speak in a witty way about the penetration of mass society into the village of that time, and about the family dramas that this infiltration initiates. This is how we find out the following: "Gold dukat coins are not placed on flowers, but on the girl whom no one wants", but also: "He gave me vineyards and grapes, to wait for him until he comes from the army". In an unobtrusive way, by effectively using the motives of song and singing, as well as handicrafts, we meet another of the invisible Petrijas from our village, and her inner strength, perseverance and humor with which she faced the challenges of life. Unfortunately, as Vukosava finally says: "No more…
BEYOND THE MOUNTS, BEYOND THE WATERS!
15.17 min, 2006
CAMERA, SCREENPLAY, DIRECTION
Dobrila and Dobrivoje Pantelić,
EDITING
Milan Pantelić
PRODUCTION
Običaji Rađevine: Tri-D.
Beyond the Mounts, Beyond the Waters! is a clear example of the approach nurtured by the Pantelić cooperative in telling authentic life stories from the region. The Pantelić family chooses stories with a strong ethical message, which they try to underline with the film means of expression available to them. The film Beyond the Mounts, Beyond the Waters! is a hybrid form in which authentic stories about a family tragedy that once happened, ritual actions that were done to avoid its unwanted consequences and supernatural consequences that still resulted from that tragedy are intertwined, with fictional forms emphatically evoking the dramatic plot. The plot is a typical village drama. After a fierce quarrel and fight over marital infidelity, Miloš hangs himself on a branch of an old tree of takuša pear, he is buried under the pear tree, his wife goes mad with remorse and dies, his relatives burn the pear tree and throw the ashes into the Jadar River, and after his death he becomes a rascal who shoos away hail clouds from his village. The film combines color image that speaks of the present with a black-and-white image depicting scenes from the past, the contemporary villagers telling of what happened a long time ago with a playful reconstruction of the family drama, and simultaneously shows village rituals of shooing hail away. The film is one of those with a clear morale: quarrel leads to violence, violence to death, death to sin; sin brings punishment that must be redeemed in both this life and the next, and the witnesses create the legends that continue to influence the fate of local people even centuries after the tragic event.
MEĐA (THE FIED BORDER)
47.08 min, 2012
CAMERA, SCREENPLAY, DIRECTION
Dobrila and Dobrivoje Pantelić,
EDITING
Dušan Jošić
PRODUCTION
Običaji Rađevine: Tri-D.
The film Međa is the most complex and complete realization of the author's concept by Dobrila and Dobrivoje Pantelić. It is a fine weave that intertwines poetry, literary works, TV news, newspaper reports, police reports, court documents, scientific works, local legends and the living human word of the narrator. These templates are uttered by both local amateur actors and the champions of the National Theater, both local villagers and journalists, building together a layered and painful story about a kind of negative peasant cultural tradition and deficiency of collective mentality. Strengthening each other, these forces lead people from these areas to decades of litigation, exchang ing swear words and curses, pulling fists, sticks, axes, knives and rifles, and wounding, maiming or killing each other, all out of a crazy desire that one neighbor should have his life at least a little worse than the other one. As in most of Pantelić productions, the viewer is offered a catharsis in the last part of the film, in form of a story about an extended family in which relatives and in-laws live together in harmony and love, without distinguishing between mine and yours, and with the message that throughout Serbia people could emulate this positive example. As might be expected, it is very difficult to maintain such a complex structure in balance. The acting is uneven, some solutions do not fit best into the overall structure, and the morale of the real life, although in itself very positive, seems forced and unconvincing, especially when you take into account all the gloomy stories that were previously presented. Nevertheless, with all its shortcomings, Međa is a strong and warning story about the destructive elements of Serbian peasant culture, after which every viewer is left with bitterness in his soul and a desire to contribute in some way to overcoming the presented flaws. That is exactly the core of the mission that the Pantelić family set for themselves