Predrag Miletić
Sveto mesto (A Holy Place, 1990) is based on a literary classic, Nikolai Gogol's 1835 short story, 'Viy'. However, Kadijevic uses it only as a starting point for his own explorations into the dark side of eroticism. Gogol's story deals with Toma, a reluctant theology student who is forced to read the Psalms over an (un)dead girl for three nights in a row. All the while supernatural forces are trying to grab him from the Holy Circle drawn on the church floor. Kadijevic adapts and enriches 'Viy' by inventing a new backstory for the witch-girl and her father. The dead girl, Catherine (unwittingly killed in the prologue, while in the shape of a hag), is referred to as a 'saint' and her father is a harsh and unpleasant man. Kadijevic departs further from the original story, and introduces an excess of perversity and horror more reminiscent of the Anglo-American gothic than the milder Slavic attempts in a similar mode.
A group of musicians, whose band is called "Balkan express", in fact a quintet of small-time crooks , trying to make some money in Nazi-occupied Serbia.
In this entertaining, clever satire, it is the beginning of World War II and a group of con artists and thieves decide to pose as musicians under the rubric "The Balkan Express".
The story follows five months in the life of Belgrade student Maja Sabljic, an actress-to-be, from her high school graduation day (at the end of May) until mid September when she tries to enroll at the Film Academy (FDU). The story is presented in the documentary style, involving the real-life persons of the late seventies' Belgrade scene.
