17/08/2021 - In his first feature, Montenegrin director Dušan Kasalica shows enviable control in a scathing drama about a self-satisfied man comfortable in his social position and oblivious to the needs of others

The first feature by Montenegrin filmmaker Dušan Kasalica, The Elegy of Laurel [+see also:
trailer
interview: Dušan Kasalica
film profile], has just world-premiered in the Sarajevo Film Festival's competition. A drama that turns into a dark fairy tale, it is a meticulously conceived and executed concept.

Filip (Frano Lasić) is a distinguished university professor of History in his sixties. He arrives at a health resort on the coast with his wife of many years, Katarina (Savina Geršak). They talk very little, except when Filip goes into his philosophical musings, which include topics like primal instincts or Nietzsche. Soon enough, Katarina simply says their marriage is over and leaves.

Filip stays for three more days, and his only reaction to being left by his wife is screaming into a filled bathtub. Then he goes back to the city, and we see him at the university, just enough to confirm that, in social situations as well, this is a haughty, self-satisfied man comfortable in his ignorance, and oblivious to the needs and emotions of others. Next, he packs his bags and goes to his house in the mountains. Here, the film takes a sharp turn into the territory of the fantastical. Filip's possible transformation will be driven by mythical creatures, including a regal-looking billy goat, a snake that turns into a beautiful girl, and his own deceased mother.

Kasalica has found some impressive settings for his film. The hotel/spa on the coast is large and very quiet, the surrounding woods thick, and the autumn sea grey and tumultuous. The mountains where Filip's house is perched are the perfect backdrop to the fantastical segment: the forest is studded with imposing, ancient pine trees. This section, though, loosely based on a Croatian fairy-tale, itself hailing from Slavic mythology, destabilises the film to a certain extent: its symbolism is clear and is well connected to the main character, but the switch is jarring for the viewer and it takes time to get used to it.

From the first shot, in which Igor Djordjević's camera slowly comes out of a cave, the audience feels that the director knows exactly what he is doing and why, even if they themselves are not sure. Meticulous framing, dialogue that clearly shows changes in Filip's outlook towards people and creatures that have different roles in his life, as well as a deliberate, slow editing rhythm from Jelena Maksimović with several very gradual, well-placed cross-fades, show enviable directorial control.

Another interesting aspect is the music: unlike the majority of European arthouse films, The Elegy of Laurel has a strong, captivating theme song by Branislav Jovančević Kӣr, whose moniker, based on a prefix for Balkan names from the Middle Ages, reflects the epic, eerie and probably slightly ironic quality of the track. In addition, several diegetic songs by old Yugoslav composers, plus the famous aria from "The Magic Flute" as elevator music, figure prominently in the film, setting unexpected moods.

By casting Frano Lasić, a heartthrob for everyone's boomer mum back in Yugoslav times, in the main role, Kasalica certainly has something to say about the generation of his parents and the society they left to their children after their comfortable middle-class life fell apart along with the former country. The fact that this decision overlaps with a scathing look at a particular kind of man that everyone will easily recognise is certainly no coincidence.

The Elegy of Laurel is a co-production by Montenegro's Meander Film and Serbia's Non-Aligned Films.