„Vozi Miško!“ (Drive on, Miško!) is a well known replica from the film. Serbian people use it almost daily, especially when they talk with a car or bus driver.
Miško is a not so bright young men, but a very good bus driver. His father and he own transportation enterprise ”Firma Krstić i sin” (Krstic and son enterprise), actually an old worn-out bus with coal engine.
On 5th of April, 1941, their bus with several passengers are trying to get to Belgrade. The people are very interesting: two Gypsy musicians, a World War I veteran, a Germanophile, a budding singer, a sickly looking man, a hunter with a rifle, a priest, and a pair of young newlyweds.
They are faced with numerous difficulties but they finally reach Belgrade at dawn of 6th April, only to be caught in the middle of the Luftwaffe raid.
Dusan Kovacevic, who wrote the screenplay for the film said: “This film is inspired by a true story. It is really a history fact that the bus arrived in Belgrade that day and it’s passengers had similar fate because they were determined to arrive in Belgrade.”
However, the true value of the film is the fact that people in Serbia are showed exactly as they are: they don’t like Gypsies and think all Gypsies are thieves; some people hate Germans, but the others adore them. Many of us don’t like to pay for a ticket, but at the same time we like to show off, even if that means we would pay much more than normally, and so on.
A few days ago, teacher Ljiljana wrote very interesting article about Serbian films: 10 Must-Watch Serbian Films (http://www.italki.com/discussion/101591)
After a couple of days thinking about this topic, I have decided to present 20 Serbian films which I think all are gemstones of Serbian and former YugosIav cinematography. I believe they show living in Serbia in previous 80 years or so in a real light; at the time before the World War the Second, during the war, after the war but before the decomposition of former Yugoslavia, and period after that time until now.
I am going to write about the films one by one. Otherwise, it'll be a very long text, tiring to read, and difficult to me to write it all at once.
Please free to correct my English. By doing that I'll improve my writing and your pleasure of reading.
1 „Maratonci trče počasni krug“ (“The Marathon Family”)
This is the first drama that famous Serbian dramatist Dusan Kovacevic (Dušan Kovačević) wrote for the stage in early seventies. (OK, maybe not his first drama, but the first drama which was performed).
It was a satire about that period of life in former Yugoslavia, but when he wrote the screenplay for the film with the same title in 1982, the time when events took a part was changed to year 1935, thus it describes the time before the World War the second.
The film has become one of Serbian cult films and some of replicas from it in Serbia are used a lot in everyday speech:
„Šta to radiš kume?“ - What are you doing godfather? (When you are very unpleasantly surprised)
„Šta će biti s kućom?“ - What will happen to the house? (When you don’t believe what you heard what someone is going to do)
„Al’ ga je popravio, svaka mu čast!“ - He fix it brilliantly, congratulations to him. (When you admire someone for the great work done.)
„Ponovo radi bioskop!“ The cinema is open again. (When something is now as it was a lot of time before)
The Marathon Family is a black humour story about five generations of family Topalovic which are morticians in a small town in Serbia between two great wars. Somehow they all are men, without any woman except their maid.
The only other woman in the film is Kristina, a daughter of an another mortician family. The youngest member of Topalovic family, Mirko, is in love with Kristina, but she is mesmerized with Đenka, a photographer who makes porno films.
Should I say that Mirko and Đenka are the best friends and Mirko admires Đenka? However, the story is about the inheritance of Pantelija, the oldest member of the family who dies after 150 years of life.
A few years ago Dusan Kovacevic said about the drama:
“While I was writing a story about a young man who lived in the family of Methuselah undertakers wishing to escape from that darkness (death) and go somewhere to a better, more beautiful and more vital world, everything was a metaphor about the rule of “the undertaker” in a communist country - the company for production of funeral equipment with its own sense of unbearable claustrophobia, I did not know then in early seventies, that my personal “drama” would be transferred (after theater) into a film, and then, in a musical in 2008 because the time of those seventies seems as far from now as is thinking today about the flight to Venus.”
It isn’t all what is interesting about the drama. A year and a half ago, in Belgrade „Zvezdara Theater” where now Dusan Kovacevic is a director, “The Marathon Family” was performed with all female actresses!
There is a very good article about numbers in Serbian. (http://www.italki.com/article/468/numbers-in-serbian#.Vc-Mqn3QgXY) However, this time I would like to explain numbers from the different point - jargon.
1 Number one - JEDAN
We don't only say JEDAN which is formal, but we say JEDINICA, or KEC. Kec is more informal although you can hear it very often. Kec is the worst grade in school, so you can hear from some kid:
Dobio sam keca u školi!
Kec is also a name for one of the playing cards - Ace.
2 Number two (DVA) DVOJKA. People who like to bet often say:
Igrao sam iz dvojke u keca. It means that someone bet that the visiting team will win at the end of the first half of a game, and domestic team will win the game at the end.
3. Number three (TRI) TROJKA
When basketball player gets three points, reporter almost as a rule says TROJKA. Croatian reporters say TRICA, and for two points - DVICA.
4 Number four (ČETIRI) ČETVORKA
5 pet - PETICA
6 šest - ŠESTICA
7 sedam - SEDMICA
8 osam - OSMICA
9 devet - DEVETKA
10 deset - DESETKA
11 jedanaest - JEDANAESTICA
12 dvanaest - DVANAESTICA
13 trinaest - TRINAESTICA
14 četrnaest - ČETRNAESTICA
15 petnaest - PETNAESTICA
16 šesnaest - ŠESNAESTICA
17 sedamnaest - SEDAMNAESTICA
18 osamnaest - OSAMNAESTICA
19 devetnaest - DEVETNAESTICA
20 dvadeset - DVADESETICA
21 dvadeset jedan - DVADESET JEDINICA (DVADESET KEC)
22 dvadeset dva - DVADESET DVOJKA
23 dvadeset tri - DVADESET TROJKA
24 dvadeset četiri - DVADESET ČETVORKA
and so on.
These jargon names people almost always use when they talk about bus lines.
However, when talk about money in Serbia people often say BANKA (10 - DESET) and SOM (100 - STO). In Bosnia 10 is CENER, and 1000 (HILJADARKA) is MILJA. 1000 in Croatia is TISUĆA, but in this case it is formal word.
