ADRIA BLUES (Miroslav Mandic 2013)

Adria Blues is a wonderful film about a man, Tony Riff, who had been a pop star in the 80’s, but who had sunk into a deep depression and was having trouble to cope with life.  He is married to Sonia, who supports them as a phone sex operator. Tony is not coping, having lost his art and not so enthralled with his wife and her career. Sonia sets up a come back performance for Tony, hoping to inspire him to return to his music, and shake off his deep depression.

The performance is planned for a restaurant at the edge of the sea, in a hotel that has been centered around the theme of past pop music performers. The story is quite comical with a number of characters coming together, each in their own unique personal situation.  There is one room where a young mistress awaits her lover, only to be joined by the wife while the husband has been waylayed in a hippie encampment hugging trees and dancing in the moonlight. Then there is the massage chair salesman, and the gangster and his wife, who are impatiently awaiting the Tony Riff performance, there is the young pop band who is meant to back Tony Riff, and the hotel owner, each with their own predicament.

The film was delightful, certainly one of my favorite. There was tremendous attention to detail and to character development. There was never a way to predict what would happen next. Despite wanting Tony Riff to take the stage, accept the bribe of large amounts of money (which he needed), to do it for his sweet wife and the floundering  love between them, to do it for the sake of the innkeeper and his long lasting devotion to Tony, despite all of the reasons to pick up his guitar and go on stage…… Tony refuses. 

The story takes place in Slovenia and is linked to the wars in Bosnia and Croatia which had a devastating impact on artists.