wsu/eng5070

The movie starts with a trick. When the audience thought that Jelena was going to suicide, they were only doing a show. I am not familiar with the Country problems at that time but it seemed like it was reflected a social problem that the Country was going through at a certain time.

            Dr. Illac who was offering the treatment to the patients was himself an alcoholic. He was talking and talking about the “Will Power” that he did had. Of course he was not able to give something that he did not have. He did not have the “will power” so how would he pass it to others. He did not succeed in this attempt it was like a punishment for him. He was the person who was fooling his patients. On the other hand, did he give up. At the end of the movie, he admitted that it did not work this Year, but it will in the future.

            The Camera did not take us close to any one in the movie, except Jelena. She was the only person that was close to us, and we had great deal of sympathy toward her. Maybe that was because we knew her life story and that she lost the custody of her children.

            Jelena was the person who took care of the doctor’s son and she did succeed and did stop drinking. The “will power” inside her came from the longing to her lost Children. They were the key for her treatment, even though, it was not showed directly. I have seeing the patients better and happier than the doctor because they were not acting something different from which they are. Dr. Illac was worse than all of them; the only thing that made him better than them was that he played smart.

    In my opinion, I saw Dr. Illac was a general symbol for lots of people in the society, from any normal person to the perches and political members. Not every one who says he/she was perfect, and then he/she is. They could be worst than any other person. We are neither devils nor angels, but we are humans.  

            At the end of the movie was a scene of flying birds. While the doctor’s son was watching them flying freely, it was a symbol for a better future for those poor patients and for the new generation.

    The special thing about this movie is that it did not pick any date, nor it was shown with out a date. It had a very famous date. It started showing the date of April, 5th, 1949, the second day which was April, 6th, 1949, the Nazi bombed Belgrade.  It started with the two Rome singing to the Camera. Every time they sang through the movie, they were facing the Camera. It was like if they were there living with the characters and at the same time, they were the people who had the wise view of what was going around them. In each situation they had the same base Song, but they added to it some new things to it depending on the situation they were in.

    The most obvious thing in the movie was that the scenes were only taken in two patterns; inside and outside the bus back and froths to the end of the movie. That was very interesting because the whole movie was about this journey to Belgrade. All the stories and things happen in this journey.

            We were close to the people in some how. Each person had his/her own personality that mode us closer to him/her .Like the bus driver was greedy for the money. All he cares about was how to collect money form the people inside the bus. They were starving and thirsty, and he did not give anyone of them even a sip of water, while he was giving the water to his pigs. In the right time, he slaughters the pigs, cook it and sell it to them. The old man had his own personality too. He was a person who was so proud of himself. He respected himself and he wanted others to do that too. Even though he was an old man, he had the nerve of a young boy. Another person was the young boy; all he cared about was his food and how to get it to his stomach. He was so young and stupid to be a married man. The movie continued in this way for almost all the actors. 

    The movie was a tragedy because it ended with the death of all of them expect the two Rome. Each one of them had his/her own dream and path. Each one had his/her own reason for coming to Belgrade, but they all met in one point. It was the death point. The two Rome boys sang their last song facing the camera and telling the people how bad life came to and there is no more peace in this world. Even though with all of those sad events, the movie was so funny, it gave pleasure to the audience while reflecting a view of a society in a certain period of time.

    A person might live in a country and he/she is considering that is their country. That is the country they were born and that would be the country they would did in. We see the opposite idea in the movie “The Shop on Main Street.” Even though the movie was not in a great detail about the suffering of the Jews at the period, but it did mention the problem in a general view.

    Mrs. Lauthmann was a very old woman, which her husband died in WWII. She has a buttons store. She worked so hard to serve herself from starving. She thought that was her store and that was her country. She never had an idea that a very bad would happen to her and her people. The movies discuss the problems shocks the Jews people had. Mrs. Lauthmann was a symbol for those innocent people who had to pay something for nothing. Who had to pay their lives for no guilt or sin. It was an irony on that particular time and people. Why did the people except what was going on to their friends and neighbors? Don’t all the religions on believed that no should be killed with out a sin? Where was the church of that time? Why did it allow the killing of the innocent? Another irony was that any person would try to help the Jews would be beaten, or even killed and called a “Jews lover.”. It was like a bad reputation to any person would try to be fair and do the right thing. We know now that those people are the heroes.

    Even the movie was a kind of drama, but it had comedy in it. The old lady Mrs. Lauthmann was fantastic. She show lots of things that a person may go through when in are in older age. She was deaf and acted so good in every detail. Tony was knocking on the door very hard and she could not hear and if she would only turn around she will she him. She was a very kind person. She treated him so nice and kind better than his wife. She cared about him and was there for him. While his wife was another version of her brother-in-law, who did not care about Jews no matter how old are they, young or old. When she was telling him that she should know where she puts her money, Tony smacked her face more than once until she stared to cry. I liked that part. At that moment she showed that he was a man. There was a psychological issue in Tony’s mind about the destiny of the poor old lady, she was telling him to robber her. He could not take it anymore from his mean wife

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    In a certain time, Tony decided that he will save the old woman no matte what happens to him. He tried to worn her more than once, but because she was deaf, she did not care about what he was saying. After that we saw that Tony change his mind and wanted to give her away. He seemed like if he had a mood shift. He was not able to make his mind. After trying so hard to help, he became so mean to her. He was chasing an old scared lady to hand her to the government and to get deported. He did not have any mercy toward her at those moments. That was a great contrast between the person who wanted to save her, and between the person who wanted to harm her. She was upset from him why he opened her store in the Sabbath. After the truck left with the Jews people, he tried to apologize to her, but it was too late. After all the fight and chasing with him, after all the fear that was inside her, she did not care about life anymore. At that time she decided to close her shop on her holiday the Sabbath no matter what would cause her. Even the government finds her, and get deported or killed. She did not value life no more. The only thing she wanted to hold on was her religion. She decided to close the store, and Tony did not let her, because she will be found out. In the way he tried to save her life he killed her. After he found out, he hanged himself and both of them left this world in the same day. Tony was not a strong person from the beginning. He was not strong in his wife’s face. He was not strong to make up this mind one way or the other in his attempts to save Mrs. Lauthmann. Finally, when he found that he killed her by accident, he was not strong enough to handle it. He knew it was not done by purpose, but his feeling of guilt was greater than his strength.

    The interesting thing I found was that both of them ran away from death and harm, but at the same time, both of them ran to the death’s arms.