Metastases (film)

Metastases
Directed by	Branko Schmidt
Produced by	Stanislav Babić Vanja Sutlić
Written by	Ivo Balenović Ognjen Sviličić
Starring	Rene Bitorajac
Cinematography	Dragan Ruljančić
Studio	HRT Telefilm
Release date(s)	30 March 2009 (Zagreb)
Running time	82 minutes
Country	Croatia
Language	Croatian

Metastases (Croatian: Metastaze) is a 2009 Croatian crime drama film about some of the most common problems in post-war Croatia, including football hooliganism, drug addiction and alcoholism. It was directed by Branko Schmidt.

Plot

The film follows the lives of four unconventional friends from a Zagreb neighbourhood – Krpa, Filip, Kizo and Dejo. All of them are football fans and Dinamo Zagreb supporters.

Krpa is an antisocial football hooligan who constantly abuses his wife. Throughout the film, he also insults and physically attacks several people who complain about his behaviour. In the final scene, he robs a betting shop and is involved in a foot chase with two police officers.

Filip is a drug addict who spent three years in a rehabilitation program in Spain. When he returns to Zagreb at the beginning of the film, his parents try to persuade him to find a job in order to prevent him from returning to his previous habits. The same day, he reunites with the remaining three members of the group at a neighbourhood bar.

Kizo is an ailurophiliac alcoholic. He lives with his mother after the death of his father. One day, he goes to the bar to meet the rest of the group, so they can go to a football match together, only to learn that they had already left the bar without waiting for him to come. He goes back home, also visiting a supermarket to buy alcoholic beverages and cat food. He is then seen drinking and taking care of a litter of kittens in his backyard.

Dejo, a Serb, is the son of a former Yugoslav officer. He is also a drug addict and owes people money. His ethnicity constantly leads to insults from Krpa, who even persuades him to kiss the Altar of the Homeland.

Along with Filip, Dejo goes to Sarajevo to buy heroin. On their way back home, they visit Filip's aunt and uncle somewhere in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Filip's aunt and uncle say they would like to give his parents two bags of potatoes, but he says there is not enough space in Dejo's car to transport the bags, so they agree to transport them on their own in a few days. Filip hides the drug inside one of the bags, but it is eventually found by the border police when the bags are transported by a neighbour of Filip's aunt and uncle, Reuf, who did not know about the drug.

Awards

The film won three Golden Arena awards at the 2009 Pula Film Festival:

• Big Golden Arena for Best Film
• Golden Arena for Best Actor (Rene Bitorajac as Krpa)
• Golden Arena for Best Makeup

Cast

• Rene Bitorajac - Krpa
• Franjo Dijak - Filip
• Robert Ugrina - Kizo
• Rakan Rushaidat - Dejo
• Ivo Gregurević - Filipov otac (Filip's father)
• Ljiljana Bogojević - Filipova majka (Filip's mother)
• Daria Lorenci - Milica
• Jadranka Đokić - Krpina žena (Krpa's wife)
• Ksenija Marinković - Kizina majka (Kizo's mother)
• Predrag Vušović - Dejin otac (Dejo's father)
• Franjo Jurčec - Krpin susjed (Krpa's neighbour)
• Vera Zima - Teta Zora (Aunt Zora)
• Emir Hadžihafizbegović - Reuf
• Ivan Brkić - Tetak Brane (Uncle Brane)
• Filip Šovagović - Zombi

External links

• Metastases at the Internet Movie Database