The Black Pin [Igla Ispod Praga] ( Ivan Marinovic, 2016): Montenegro | Serbia

Reviewed by Susan Cochran. Viewed at the Metro 4 Theaters, Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2017.

Filmmaker Ivan Marinovic’s first feature length movie came from his heart. Writing and directing this film, he takes us on a journey of storytelling, superstition and absurdity. Marinovic graduated from the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and returned to Montenegro to make this film in the rustic villages he knows; the land of his grandparents. His focus was incorporating stories that he grew up with to visually show them in film to continue this heritage.

The story centers around Orthodox priest Peter (Macedonian actor Nikola Ristanovski) who returns to the village of his youth to care for his mother. The responsibility of family and church weighs heavily on him. Peter’s wife has left him, he is bitter, his son knows the right buttons to push, he is sarcastic (when a parishioner consults him, he replies “If you’re miserable in this life, most likely it will be the same in whatever comes after”), and he is standing in the way of land developers. Peter will not sell the family property and the deal to bring economic growth to the village cannot go through without his acreage which creates anger with the locals.

How to get rid of Peter? Get all the villagers to petition against him so he is banished by the church. The instigators begin their work by suggesting that the priest will hold the funeral for a rumored witch – an elderly woman who recently died. Superstition is at its highest as turtles with lit candles on their shells crawl through the cemetery at night while the church bell rings. The funeral march to the cemetery becomes awkward as the coffin falls from the car and slides down the hill, an erratic band plays during the service, a fist fight breaks out, and the coffin is too large for the crypt. But no worries, a chainsaw is handy.

The cast ensemble works well. Ristanovski’s bold yet weary performance plays nicely against his obstacles. His critical son is played by Filip Klicov in his first feature film. Serbian screen star Jelisaveta Seka Sablić gives a memorable performance as Peter’s senile mother. Sablić has great comedic timing and in her moments of clarity, she endears herself to the audience as we may recognize our elderly relatives. The village antagonists are not quite the bumbling group we would anticipate and when one sells his car to afford a cell phone, we see the pull between old and new ways.

The movie is filmed on the Luštica peninsula in Montenegro. Marinovic uses the sweeping hill and ocean shots as well as the village like another character in the movie. Painted home interiors are beautifully lighted and give an ageless charm to the scenes. Yes, this could be a tourist advertisement and that brings us back to the developer’s dream. Marinovic invites us to visit a vanishing way of life and see the stories of his youth. I highly recommend this film…and you’ll also learn the superstition behind The Black Pin.

[Photo from IMDb]