Failed attempt at suspense drama

TE NOCI

Director: Jovan Zivanovic

Cast: Rade Markovic, Pavle Vuisic.

 

Widely underrated Yugoslav filmmaker Jovan Zivanovic tried to intersect disaster cinema and marriage melodrama in his second feature. Sadly, his sophomore effort turned out to be a little hectic since neither suspense nor melodrama got developed.

This movie somehow sequelizes his previous feature `Zenica`. Again, it`s the story of an engineer (played by superstar Rade Markovic) whose wife can`t handle his professional duties. Their struggle is set against the backdrop of threatened disaster in the local mine that only engineer`s skill can solve.

This film fails to generate sufficient suspense and the marriage trouble don`t add enough. Such development surprises after brilliant `Zenica` and yet, it all gets perfectly explained when you realize that Zivanovic was even fired from this project at some point and that only persistence of star Rade Markovic got this one together.