Family Meals (Dana Budisavljevic, 2012): Croatia

Reviewed by Jillian P. Halverstadt. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

(The only picture to be found of this unknown documentary.  Dana is on the right.)

This had to have been one of the oddest documentaries ever to be shown,

the director Dana Budisavljevic created it completely on her own.

I will say it had some interesting topics to discuss,

but most of the time it was a family trying not to fuss.

I expected much more from this film when I read its description,

but after seeing it I wish I would’ve just went to a fiction.

It follows a Croatian family as they talk over each meal

and begin to address issues that are very real.

From Dana’s families reactions to her being gay,

to her mothers choice of leaving their father and moving away.

It is easy to see the subdued emotion

and there is not enough content to keep any sort of plot in motion.

The film was extremely short in length,

and I wasn’t able to identify any themes that held much strength.

There was no kind of cinematographic value that would make it groovy,

but instead it resembled a shaky, homemade movie.

The lighting was dull and the some of the dialogue was a single letter,

honestly I don’t think this documentary was destined for anything better.

I don’t think I would ever recommend Family Meals to a friend,

as when I saw it I couldn’t wait for it to end.

Perhaps it is just not my kind of taste,

but I don’t think I was the only one who saw this as a waste.

(The brief length, vague content, and possibly unsatisfying quality of my creative review above is simply a literal reflection of just how much of a let down this choice was for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.)