A Film a Week - South Wind / Južina

 previously published on Cineuropa

In Dalmatia, especially in the winter time, one’s moods, feelings and therefore actions are controlled by the winds. The bura, or internationally "bora", usually brings dry air and clarity, but also the cold. On the other hand, the jugo (or more commonly "sirocco") brings warmth, but also humidity, rain and a chance of unexpected, erratic behaviour by some people. Effectively, in the everyday mythology of the Croatian Adriatic, the jugo and the weather it brings, južina, play the role usually reserved for the full moon in other parts of the world. This kind of weather serves as the starting point and the mood board for Marin Ante’s exceptionally ambitious and deftly crafted feature debut South Wind, which has opened the 72nd Pula Film Festival.

The story is set in and around a four-storey, eight-apartment building in the city of Split, during one day of južina weather. It opens with a sequence outside where two thugs (Franko Jakovčević and Đorđe Marković) wait for the signal from a third person to start an action aimed against somebody. Most of the rest of the film plays through a flashback in which we get to know the building's tenants, and which sets up a mystery around which one of them got onto the thugs’ radar.

In one flat on the first floor, history teacher Toma (Donat Zeko) has moved back in with his father, an avid Venezia FC fan called Mićo (Stojan Matavulj) after earning a suspension from work for pushing the Ancient Roman narrative regarding Christianity. In another, Anka (Snježana Sinovčić Šiškov) asks tough guy Stipe (Mijo Kevo) to do something about the hooligan brothers on the top floor. On the next two floors, two apartments are for short-term rent, while the other two are occupied by one family each. The religious Dumanić family has to face their daughter’s (Petra Krolo) teenage rebellion, while the other family uses their daughter’s birthday for the father (Paško Vukasović) to pitch his rhymes to a famous rapper (Grgo Šipek Grše playing a version of his persona).

Finally, in one apartment on the top floor, we have brothers Ronaldo (Stipe Jelaska) and Adriano (Zdravko Vukelić), who are the talk of the building. The other apartment at that level, however, is occupied by a young woman named Dijana (Ana Franić), who has an affair with her landlord and is about to spill the beans to his fiancée (Katarina Romac) who has come to collect the rent.

Judging by the inspired, breezy script written by the filmmaker himself, South Wind seems to be a passion project that has been simmering for a long time. There are certainly a few mistakes, but they are soon forgotten thanks to the sheer charm of the dialogues that discreetly open a path for well-placed puns and carefully picked pop-culture and sports references, while keeping the audience intrigued. 

All the actors in the cast, no matter how small their roles, are the ones who profited most from Marin’s writing and directing, as he keeps them in the most playful of modes. On the technical side, the mosaic structure of the film, which recalls the classical American “Suite” films, the works of Robert Altman and Quentin Tarantino’s Four Rooms, might have presented a challenge for the editor, but Ivor Šonje did his part with clarity, cutting the film down to an ideal 82 minutes. The cinematography by Krešimir Štulina captures the unique Split spirit, while the inclusion of Toma Bebić’s “schlagers” on the soundtrack serves both as a complicated-to-explain reference, and its purpose. In the end, South Wind is not just an inspired and sure-handed debut, but also a proper showcase of talent and a crowd-pleaser.