previously published on Cineuropa
The fact that the plural form of the term for a dark, undead supernatural force (for example, a demon, phantom, vampire or witch) has been used as the title of Aldo Tardozzi’s long-awaited sophomore feature, Štriguni, signals that the filmmaker intended to explore different options in this supernatural thriller set in a world teetering between fantasy and reality. After more than a decade spent in various stages of development and production, it has now gone straight into distribution in Croatia, courtesy of Jučer.
Biologist Boris (Kemal Rizvanović, glimpsed in Quo Vadis, Aida? and The Happiest Man in the World) comes from Zagreb to work in the Origolab scientific facility somewhere in Inner Istria. The facility is run by the charismatic Dr Martin Macina (Rade Šerbedžija), who says that he is merely expanding on the research of local scientist Drago Poropat after he reportedly found the secret of eternal life through a powerful, yet unstable, substance called Viva. The primary task of the scientific team is to make the substance more stable and suitable for use by the sponsors and by the patients set to have it administered to them experimentally at the medical facility. One of the patients there is also Martin’s daughter and the “heiress” to the company, Ela (Tihana Lazović, recently seen in 3 Weeks After), with whom Boris strikes up an instant connection.
At the same time, the local community is shaken by the disappearance of local boy Luka (newcomer Relja Borović), who is believed to have been taken by the titular entity, while suspecting that the scientists and doctors from Origolab have something to do with it. As more unusual things start popping up, like giant black frogs, bloody milk, hallucinations and new organs on humans in the form of black or white bubbles, secrets are about to rise to the surface.
In the first half of the film, Tardozzi manages to create a complex fantasy world that is not too far removed from our own reality, and to set up an intricate story – and the viewer gets pulled into both very quickly. The filmmaker also successfully finds an interesting ethical and philosophical angle in the guise of the debate surrounding the possibility of indefinitely extending one’s life, emphasising the difference between “non-mortality”, based on principles of good health, prevention and regeneration, and the supernatural and usually evil-inflected term “immortality”.
He achieves this through fitting visual language based on the stark contrasts in the colour schemes of Branko Linta’s cinematography: the bright coldness of the laboratory, the saturated warmth of the village, and the brown-green-blue-grey mix of autumn sunsets and dawns. The editing by Vladimir Gojun also sets a measured pace that keeps the mystery simmering slowly, so the viewer stays hooked. The only potential problem in that regard appears in the form of the score by Tamara Obrovac, which is omnipresent: although the pieces themselves are fitting mixes of folklore tunes and neoclassical flourishes, hearing them all the time gets to be a bit burdensome.
However, by the end, Tardozzi has to solve the mystery that he cooked up previously, and he falls into the trap of rushing the climax, which does not hit as hard as it could. This also exposes some weaknesses in the character-building (Boris’s backstory in particular feels unnecessary), which sometimes leaves the actors out in the cold. This challenge is, however, relished by veteran thesp Rade Šerbedžija, always willing to improvise, and highly instinctive actress Tihana Lazović, but Kemal Rizvanović lacks the “chops” needed to elevate Boris to a leading man in a genre piece.
In the end, Štriguni is a film that does not realise the full potential of the idea behind it, which is not exclusively the filmmaker’s fault, especially given the difficult production conditions and limited budget. But in a national film industry where genre flicks are few and far between, something like this should be cherished nonetheless.
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