BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE

UK, 1999, 107 minutes, Colour.
Rosalind Ayres, Julian Firth, Charles Kay, Charlotte Coleman, Edward Jewesbury, Bobby Williams, Joseph Williams, Nicholas Farrell, Danny Nussbaum.
Directed by Jasmin Dizdar.


Beautiful People is set in the 1990s at the time of the wars in the Balkans, especially in Bosnia. While there are action sequences of the war in the Balkans, the five different stories generally take place in the UK, in London.

The stories range over a wide group of characters, doctors and their families, in hospitals, surgery… There is the also a focus on the daughter of a parliamentarian and her impending marriage. A Serb and Croat beg the clash on a bus, move to hospital, where they encounter a Welsh nationalist, anti-English. There is a young woman and her pregnancy and the possibilities of an abortion. And the young hooligan, drugged, finding himself in Holland, sleeping in the crate full of aid for Bosnia, landing in Bosnia and becoming involved in the event, especially with a young boy, blind.

The film won Ecumenical awards at festivals both in Cottbus and Karlovy Vary.

1. The Balkans in the 1990s? Bosnia? United Kingdom?

2. The atmosphere of the Balkans, war, authentic feel, action? Military, aid deliveries?

3. London, settings, the city, the range of stories?

4. The style, real, natural? Edited, pace? The musical score?

5. The title, who are the beautiful people? Everyone beautiful or not?

6. The structure: the fight to the reconciliation, the London stories, the doctor and his trauma, the hooligan parachuted into the Balkans?

7. The neighbours, Serb and Croat, in the bus, the clash? Chase, church? The injuries? Hospital? The presence of the Welsh patient and his anti-British stances? The doctor, the nurse? The issue of pulling the plug? Telling the stories? The cards?

8. The family, Parliament, subservience? Papers? The attitudes, the girl and swearing? The wedding, speeches? The brother?

9. The doctor, his wife, children, the hassle? Sleep? The pregnancy and the truth? The video – and the end? The issue of abortion, the birth of the child, children, planning, neighbours, the wife and demands? Going home, sick? Chloe and the hospital? United?

10. The wife, art, the television news, injured, the operation of the, syndrome, the victim? The doctor and hypnosis? The wife and the doctor, coping?

11. The young men, the drugs, football and introduction, the parents, heroin, landing in Holland, the robbery of the black man, taking the drugs, going to sleep in the crate, transferred to Bosnia, the discovery of the boy, saving him, blindness? Finding the syringe? Television and his reaction? The bullet, the hotel, the fight? Reading the story?

12. Pero? English background? Life, chasing the woman, the purse, the police, identification? In the car, the doctor, the attraction? The home, the deported neighbour, visiting family, piano, the plan, the wedding?

13. The incident, at the shop, Pero, the hospital? The effect?

14. Contemporary stories of the 90s? Later relevance in Civil War areas in the 21st century?