MIDWINTER NIGHT’S DREAM

As scarred as the landscape and just as marginalized, three people come together for a chance at tenderness. Lazar, a bear of a man with few words, returns to his hometown in Serbia after 10 years in prison. In his old apartment he finds two Bosnian refugees, a mother and her autistic daughter (played by an autistic actor). They are unwanted outsiders, but Lazar grudgingly lets them stay. Little by little he becomes attached, especially to the ethereal Jovana who has echolalia. Naively, he urges Jovana to ?wake up.? For him, she represents his country?s alienation, fear and futility. Lazar is also troubled by war trauma that wakes him nightly, as well as a tragic event. In one fantastic scene he goes to an old woman?s house and apologizes for killing her son. She sits stone-faced, watching the Mars landing on TV. As the love grows between Lazar, Jasna and Jovana, winter turns to a cherry-blossom spring, but will it be enough to keep them safe and together? The film is beautifully shot, graced with good music and sound, and the angelic Jovana is magnetic as the girl who knows love, but cannot express it.