FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16
This Slavic Romeo and Juliet story shows the complexity of the inter-ethnic hatreds long extant in Yugoslavia. In the Vojvodina territory on the Yugoslav-Hungarian border, the period between 1945 and 1948 saw a shifting of nationalities and allegiances as the government brought in Serbian “freedom fighters” to claim the property of repatriated minorities. When the Topics, a family of Bosnian Serbs, move into a primarily Croatian village, a forbidden romance grows between the oldest son and his beautiful but war-scarred neighbor. As the winds of change follow the winds of war, blowing hardship on Serb and Croat alike, the families of the young lovers finally accept their common humanity, but only after irreversible tragedy. The themes of Zoran Masirevic’s debut film, made in 1990, seem particularly poignant in light of current events. Sadly, the lesson that it offers has gone unheeded. (AS) (Pipers Alley, 5:00)
Bathroom Mirror
A directorial collaboration between Francesca Fisher and Chicagoan Taggart Siegel (Blue Collar & Buddha). In 1968 a hippie painter (Thom Vernon) is engaged to a flamenco dancer (El norte’s Zaide Silvia Gutierrez) in Mexico. But when he’s treated for a “problem of the heart” by a witch’s daughter (Maira Serbulo), he becomes involved with her as well, then abandons her when she becomes pregnant and has to face her magical retribution. With Greg Sporleder. (Pipers Alley, 7:00)
*Hyenas
A New York nightdub singer (Linda Fiorentino) accidentally meets a Hispanic worker (Elias Koteas) and sets off a string of erotic intrigues that cross class lines in an American feature directed by Temistocles Lopez; with Malcolm McDowell and Assupta Serna. (Music Box, 9:00)
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Jeremiah Pollock (Kevin Kildow) is a prodigal yuppie computer programmer with a Marina del Rey condo and enough liberal guilt to counterbalance Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky in the grand karmic scheme of things. When he realizes the futility of his contributions to charities for the homeless, he reprograms his employer’s ATMs to give away money to LA’s dispossessed. This hook, while clever, is not the main virtue of Eames Demetrios’s debut feature, whose cast includes several real inhabitants of LAs skid rows; rather a poetic, anthropological view of LA–laid out in frequent intrusions on the narrative–provides a more profound perspective for the story, which otherwise could have turned into another Life Stinks. In avoiding the simplistic Hollywood-liberal view, with its skin-deep analysis–that the homeless are just unfortunate folks suffering from bad times–The Giving comes dangerously dose to terminal heaviness. (For instance, it could have used fewer Jesus comparisons and a lot more rock ‘n’ roll.) But the film’s provocative approach and the crisp, hyperreal black-and-white cinematography lift it above the main current of experimental film. (AK) (Pipers Alley, 9:45)
