HADISFELD (HUDDERSFIELD)

Serbia, 2008, 95 minutes, Colour.
Vojin Cetkovic.
Directed by Ivan Zikvocic.

Hadisfeld is based on a play which has been opened up somewhat for the screen. It is in the tradition of reunions where people tell the truth to one another in harsh, even vicious ways. This is the tradition of such plays and films as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and, particularly, Hurly Burly.

The title refers to one of the characters living in Yorkshire in Huddersfield. He returns to pay a visit after eleven years and meets up with school friends. The central character is a nihilist, doesn’t work, is critical of everyone, lectures and tutors, has one of his students as a lover, works at a local radio (*station?) and is abusive to guests. The film focuses on him and he has the main thrust of aggression towards all the characters. Another character is a yuppy friend. There is also the young student girl. However, there is a redeemer figure, in the tradition of the Holy Fool, a thirty-three-year-old man who has been in an institution, is on a pension, has intuitions, has been baptised in the Orthodox church, wants to write poetry. He suffers a great deal from insults and criticism – but is always resilient and offers some kind of hope. (However, in the central character’s dream, he is actually stabbed to death by this character – something which alarms him and moves him towards some kind of self-awareness.)

The film is very rough, brutal, earthy in a very Serbian way. It is of interest to outsiders for observation – and may be therapeutic, cathartic for a Serb audience, especially the thirtysomethings.

1.A Serbian experience, the 21st century and the history in the 1990s, the Serb psyche?

2.An original play, a verbal experience, intensity? The interiors, its being opened up – the Huddersfield sequences? The streets and restaurant?

3.The play and its dialogue, Serbian earthiness and ugliness, the coarse language, verbal abuse, conflict, bitterness and nihilism? Drinking, sexuality, bodily functions? Violent clashes, verbal aggression?

4.The psychological aspects: rage, despair, the thirtysomethings, ambitions and lack of ambitions, relationships and lack of relationships, callow, vicious? Philosophical implications: materialism, its inadequacy, scepticism, the possibilities of the transcendent or not, religious and spirituality? Hopelessness or hope?

5.The title, the migrants to the UK, Igor, his life in Huddersfield, success, the Yorkshire opening, the contrast with Serbia and the homes, streets, the radio station? The score?

6.Rasha as the focus, age, anger, his drunken father, the apartment, slobbish way of life, the toilet and the door, Mila and the sex? Study, the radio and the brutal criticism of the novelist? Serbian nationalism? Ivan and his listening, the poetry, the gift of the sculpture, the gift of the book and the analysis of sinfulness and the ways for sinning? Rasha and his meeting his friends, the reunion, drinking, the drugs, the shared experiences, memories of school friends, Rasha and his disinterest? The building up of the insults? The focus on Dule, bravado, his talk about sex, work, the ketchup on his shirt? Igor and UK, steadiness, the fiancée, Poland? Ivan and his visits, Rasha and the brutal criticism, the taunts, Mila and the playing of the video, her leaving, his ousting his friends? Alone? The dream, Ivan talking about demons, stabbing him? His waking, the father and the ketchup, Ivan and his visit, the gifts, the possibilities for redemption?

7.The character of Igor, the UK, steady job, fiancée, his return, hopes, enjoyment of the evening, his ultimate disappointment and shock at Rasha?

8.Dule and his life, talk, work, sex, callow, the shirt and the ketchup, the drugs, his being shocked by Rasha?

9.Mila, young, the crush on Rasha, forward, callow, sex, her reaction to Ivan, ridiculing him, talking with him? The videotape of her parents? Rasha playing it and her being upset?

10.Ivan, in the flashbacks, in the institution, the way of life, regimented, the meals? His mother and her odd behaviour? His pension? Poetry, writing, books, his religious search, the baptism? Going to Rasha, helping Rasha’s father with the door, the poem Snail, the sculpture gift, Mila and talking with her, his realising he would have no family? Being attacked, accepting it, offering an apology? His appearance in Rasha’s dream, stabbing him? Yet a mediator, a Holy Fool?

11.The parent generation: Rasha’s father, drinking, rehab, taking the door, insulting his son, selling the car and the door? Ivan’s mother, the automaton, watching television?

12.The impact of the film and the point of view of the audience on Serbia and recent Serbian