Koza (Ivan Ostrochovský, 2015): Slovakia | Czech Republic

Reveiwed by Jonathan Lindgren, Santa Barbara Film Festival 2016.

In this tragicomical film,  where we get to follow the retired olympic boxer Peter Balaz with the nickname Koza (Goat) and his jouney to come out from retierment to collect money to pay for his girlfriends abortion. The film is partly a featured film and a documentary. Peter, the main actor, is in real life a retired boxer, but this exact story has not happend to him, just a similar one. The way we get follow this story is slow, through long scenes and no music. A typical eastern European movie.

But the tragic part of this movie is that they failed with the comic which makes this film pure tragic. The director (Ivan Ostrochovský) tries to make small comic scenes with no dialogues and only with face movement. And unfortunately also failes to make a bigger statement. I felt like I was just sitting and watching a very bad boxer get smacked down 8 times in 75 minutes in the ring. Plus a few big knock outs from life itself.

With all the effort he makes to collect the money for the abortion and all the punches he takes. But at the end he honestly wants to keep the baby. Punch after punch and at the end it’s all for nothing. And with the slow editing and no music makes it all up to the actor to do the job. And than cast a retired boxer as the main actor, then you have nothing left.

I wish I could say something about a deeper meaning about this movie or something who stood out, but I found nothing. Execpt from some beatiful shots in the eastern European wilderness. I can honestly say that Im not a big fan of Eastern European movies, but this one I really can’t recommend.