A Film a Week - My Late Summer / Nakon ljeta

 originally published on Cineuropa

We have watched enough Croatian movies by now to know that those “wacky” islanders have their own saints and relics that should not be defiled, touched or disrespected in any way. In the newest film by Danis Tanović, My Late Summer, the pantheon of an unnamed, remote, miniature island consists of Comrade Tito, the Virgin Mary, the Hajduk Split football club and the golf cart belonging to the mayor (who also happens to be the owner of the only bar). There, we also find a female World War II veteran who cannot stand any German- or Italian-sounding music, free-roaming cows that get high by ingesting marijuana, hidden bottles labelled as “experiments”, not-so-friendly neighbourhood affairs, and dirty secrets involving the most highly respected locals, which are not that well concealed after all.

It seems like Bosnia’s most highly decorated filmmaker Tanović (who was behind the Best Foreign-language Oscar winner No Man’s Land) has now become a regular Sarajevo Film Festival opener. Three years ago, it was with Not So Friendly Neighbourhood Affair, and now we have My Late Summer. Both films could be defined as romantic comedy-dramas (with a dash of melodrama) infused with humour connected to specific places and the mentalities of their locals, which makes them a hard sell for the international festival circuit. But, like its predecessor, My Late Summer should fare reasonably well in the region of the former Yugoslavia.

Our protagonist, Maja (Anja Matković, also the co-screenwriter), comes to the island on a very specific mission: to prove that the late sea captain Jakša was her father and to collect her fair share of her inheritance. Since the procedure can be lengthy, she decides to stay there for a while. The only option for her is to take a waitressing job at the only bar, owned by Mayor Ićo (Goran Navojec), which also comes with free accommodation. There, she meets an older US expat of Yugoslav origin, Saša (Uliks Fehmiu), who fancies himself as an aspiring writer and moved there for the nostalgic aspect of the place. A romance sets in, but his life situation is just as complicated as hers. As the summer season comes to an end and seemingly innocent incidents threaten to destroy the fragile “ecosystem” of human relationships on the island, all three will have some serious figuring out to do…

My Late Summer starts off strong and snappy, with rapid-fire jokes, but the director cannot maintain this pace, so he chooses to switch the tone first to romantic comedy, and then to (melo)drama, while frugally using what is left of the humour reserves to keep viewers at least mildly entertained until the end. Apart from Anja Matković, who was promoted to the big screen by Tanović in his previous film, and who really owns her character here, the rest of the actors, in supporting and episodic roles, are basically left in improvisation mode, so they opt for recycling their usual types with some minor variations to them, which just about does the job.

The splendorous production and craft values serve the film well. Miloš Jaćimović’s cinematography alternates between intermezzos of the picture-perfect Adriatic vistas and the seemingly floating hand-held mode that imitates the predominant state of mind on the island. The production design by Veronika Radman complements the locations perfectly, making My Late Summer an easy, watchable viewing experience. However, its low-risk philosophy and the fact that it runs low on fuel for the better part of the second half hinder its ambitions.