Landscape No. 2 (Vinko Moderndorfer, 2008): Slovenia

Reviewed by William Conlin. Viewed at The Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Though the 2009 Santa Barbara International Film Festival contained a number of exteremely well made foreign films, I am sad to say Vinko Moderndorfer’s thriller Landscape No. 2 was not one of them.

While robbing a retired Slovenian General of a priceless piece of art, common criminal Sergej gets greedy and empties a hidden safe of all its contents. Though he thinks he has just taken money from the general, he has in fact taken a document linking the General to a Post World War II massacre. If this document were to ever be released to the public, it would surely destroy the General and his entire family, so the General sends an “exterminator” after Sergej, thus putting everyone he cares about in grave danger.

This film has all the trappings of a great psychological thriller, but quickly falls flat. It runs only 90 minutes in length but feel like it’s twice as long. I immediately found it hard to get into the action of the film because of the massive plot gap presented at the beginning of the film: If the General had this life-altering document in his possession for over 50 years, why didn’t he destroy it himself?

But even with all its problems, I will say the film deserves credit for its wonderful cinematography and for the excellent acting by Marko Mandic. Cinematographer Dusan Joksimovic creates a great noir-esque feel that manages to salvage certain parts of the film and creates the tension where the plot fails. Marko Mandic’s performance as a greedy, sex-starved thief who learns the consequences of his actions is compelling to say the least. Another great performance to look for is Slobodan Custic as the “exterminator” sent after Sergej. His grim reaper-like character made a shiver run up my spine every time he came on screen.

I can see that the film is a statement about greed, revenge and truth, but its blatant attempt at morality causes the viewer to put up a barrier between themselves and the characters. With such a large number of good films released this year, I wouldn’t recommend Landscape No. 2. It just lacks certain necessities of a good thriller and runs far too slow for its plot.