A gay male couple in Sarajevo, Kenan, a Bosnian, and Milan, a Serb, plan to emigrate to the gay-friendly Netherlands, but the war strands them in Serb-controlled territory, and Kenan adopts female drag to avoid being found out as a circumcised Muslim. The pair escape to Milan's village, where the disguise is maintained through a traditional wedding. These two men barely kiss onscreen, though Kenan, who is bisexual, is shown having sex at least twice with Ranka, the village prostitute.
Ranka eventually outs the gay men to Milan's father, while Milan is drafted into the Serbian army and killed. Though firmly anti-Serb and anti-war, the film reads as ultimately misogynistic. The sole woman among the leads is the cause of all conflict, while Milan's father and best friend accept his gay affair with equanimity. In Fine Dead Girls Iva and Marija move into an apartment building that is home to a rogues' gallery of characters: a war veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress, a prostitute paid to break up the couple by a priest who is one girl's father, a homophobic gorgon of an apartment manager, and her son, a slacker mama's boy who rapes one of the pair to prove his masculinity.
The film takes aim at the brutality and amorality of contemporary Croatian society, targeting patriarchy, nationalism, and the Catholic Church, as well as homophobia. It obviously struck a chord, becoming the audience favorite at the Pula festival in '02 as well as Croatia's nominee for an Oscar the following year.
My article on these: "Who's Renting These Boys? Not Angels, but Angels A documentary about boy prostitution in Prague. The economic boom and the recently won political freedom have turned that beautiful, graceful city into a new mecca for both Eastern and Western tourists in search of sex. Young men trying to live up to the standards of Western consumerism readily fall prey to quick, easy money from hustling.
The young hustlers' disarming frankness and need to talk become the compelling engine that drives the film. They withhold nothing. Rather they speak of their lives in often gruesome and stripped-bare details, leaving us chilled by their short and fragile lives in grasp of the oldest trade on earth. See the distributor's site. Body without Soul This film was billed as a sequel to Grodecki's incredibly manipulative film about Prague rent boys, Not Angels but Angels , available on video.
