TURNEJA (THE TOUR)

Serbia, 2008, 110 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Goran Markovic.

The Tour was Serbia’s official entry for the 2008 Academy Awards.

It is interesting to watch a Serbian film from the beginning of the 21st century reflecting on Serbia and its attitudes towards war, other Balkan states as well as ethnic cleansing. This film is antiwar. It is also very Balkan in its style, with strong and raucous characters, performances – with over-the-top situations and treatment. There is a certain raucous quality to so many of the characters and situations in Balkan films which can either attract and give vitality to an audience or else repel them.

A group of actors down on their luck are contracted to go to the front line to give performances. They are an odd group and the film spends time establishing their characters as well as the difficulties of their trip to the front. Once there, they are tricked into performing and giving the proceeds to charity. They also get caught up in the war, trying to avoid the politics, but getting caught by the Croatian forces, being forced to walk through minefields – with the situation then reversed and watching the Croatians having to walk through the fields. They put up a protest. They also encounter a journalist who is an extreme nationalist and who makes a very prejudiced speech towards the end. It is the Bosnians and the Muslims who are given the speeches of more control, reconciliation and peace.

The film is very emotional, is a blend of the serious and the comic – but is interesting to see as a perspective on the war in the Balkans in the 90s from a Serbian viewpoint.

1.The intention of the film? The writer-director and his play from the late 90s? Making the film for 2008 distribution? The hindsight on the Balkans wars? The message for the present?

2.The locations, Belgrade? The countryside, the villages, the war? The war action sequences? The ruined buildings? The arms caches? The musical score?

3.The basic idea? An antiwar message via the comic touches? How well did it work? For Balkan audiences – especially Serbs? For world audiences?

4.The focus on the group, their playing cards, the different personalities? The men? The women? The old, the young? The student actress joining the group? The director and his frustrations? The atmosphere of war, people not going to the theatre? Their losing their jobs?

5.The atmosphere of the theatre? The physical theatre? The theatrical behaviour of the characters? The agent, the offer for the tour? Their decision to go? Willingly and unwillingly?

6.The bus, the journey? The driver and his friendliness? The terrain, experiencing the ravages of war? The aftermath of the battles passing towns and leaving them in ruins?

7.Their arrival, the official, the welcome? The conditions? The audience? The people excited, the teacher and her rapturous response? The jealous official, worrying about his wife?

8.The performance, the choice of the plays? The staged atmosphere? The play and the response? People wanting to get in out of the cold?

9.The characters and their reactions to the public, the melodramatic actress, her disdain of the younger woman? The dressing rooms and the interactions? The men? The flirting man and his success with women? The older men? The actress and her relationship with the fat actor in the past?

10.The pressure on the manager to give the money to the charity? The reactions of the group? The public presentation, the nurse receiving the money? The official and his reaction – for his reputation? Later finding that he had been removed?

11.Their continuing on, the difficulties of accommodation, the hotels and their being booked out, their being moved on? The buses? Trying to find the driver? The practical difficulties of the tour?

12.The performance for the soldiers, their not really being interested, the heckler in the front row, his crude remarks and behaviour? The officials and their trying to control the men? The choice of the nationalist play?

13.Moving on, their venturing into Croatian territory? Their being arrested, interrogated? The Croatian speaker? The treatment by the officials? The minefield, their being made to go through it? Their being rescued by the Serbs? The Serbs making the Croatians walk through the minefield? The actors pleading their cause?

14.The encounter with the Bosnian Muslims? Their talk of peace, war, injustices?

15.The nationalist writer, his admiration of the group, his being with them, being captured? His racist and nationalist extremist speech? Reactions? The reaction of the Muslims?

16.The resolution of the various strands, serious, comic? The ultimate message?