THE GREAT WATER. Based on a novel it starts in the lead characters moment between life and death. In the present day opening scene an ageing politician (wordless Meto Jovanovski ) is rushed to the hospital. The trauma triggers flashback recollections of his orphanage childhood. In that single moment when he is about to step to the other side to face himself, his loneliness, pain , fear, and a never forgotten friend the dying man remembers everything. Every single moment that shaped his life forever. As he was captured as a kid by the partisans after the Second World War ended in Yugoslavia he is taken to the made up orphanage where "friendly political indoctrination "is in progress. Saso Kekenovski in the lead role with his bug-wide eyed hollow stare is memorable as a lost soul. Same goes for his blood-brother Isaac ( Maja Stankovska utterly convincing playing a boy) who delivers a chilling portrayal of a "Damian" look-alike powerful Darth Sidious. Their acting is effortless even though there are not many dialogues, the scenes and their young faces perfectly describe every single scene. The movie itself is something like Empire of the sun-Devil's Backbone style prison story with some horror moments. The big difference is that is based on true events which were really happening in Macedonia. Beautifully filmed on some breathtaking locations with many memorable scenes this small movie which deserves to make it big. As an extra ingredient there is a gravely-deep voice-over by Rade Serbedzija in the English version of the movie which is magnetically reminding us about the young Lem's survival in the camp-orphanage. Very surprised that a super group LEB I SOL did not contribute a soundtrack to this movie because one of their more memorable songs is a title of the movie. Nevertheless after Mancevski's success with "Before the Rain "there was a void in the Macedonia's film industry. Ivo Trajkov managed single handedly to erase all that with this perfect and truly memorable film.
Andreja Kmetovic
Andreja Kmetovic