A retired woman who is trying to get a burial plot for her recently deceased husband is scammed out of her savings. She then tries to track down the scammers and ends up morally bankrupt herself.
This is a bleak black tale of life in the Balkans. There is no hope just people screwing each other. The film is profoundly sad as our heroine’s soul is crushed to dust.
I found the film difficult to watch. You don’t want to see someone we like sink, but that is pretty much the case here.
The real bright spot in the film is Eli Skorcheva) as Blaga. This is a glorious performance that gets under your skin moves you. In an age where many performers are phoning in their turns or going for big where small is required Skorcheva moves things along exactly as needed. It’s a performance for the ages. If you see this film do so for Skorcheva. She gives an Oscar worthy performance that Oscar completely ignored (this was an entry for best International Feature)
I should mention that this film is a kind of dark sister to a recent film that played Sundance called THELMA. That film is much lighter and life affirming even though it’s charting a similar narrative line. I am mentioning it because I was, unfairly thinking of THELMA while watching BLAGA.
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