Reflections (1987) User Reviews

Very good

[oarch · 8/10 · 19 April 2007]

Now I'm not saying this is a masterpiece, but it is nonetheless a very interesting movie. It is definitely worth seeing, if you get a chance.

The storyline follows the life of a child whose posh family disintegrated following the arrival of communists in Belgrade, Serbia.

The loss of his family, societal status and dignity and the perceived lack of morals in the communist society drives him further and further away from the mainstream and into loneliness, depression and murderous obsession.

The movie maybe tries a little too hard to represent the post-war communist society as a parade of ignorant, unsophisticated and violent peasants, freshly arrived from the mountains and villages but already ruling every aspect of the new society.

The film is really about violence, and about painful changes in society that war and violent revolutions bring.

This is so fantastic movie that I had to write a few words about it...

[nixona · 10/10 · 14 August 2001]

In my opinion, "Vec vidjeno" is the best movie of Goran Markovic (and all of them are great), one of the best Serbian directors.

It's done in cognizable Markovic's way. The story is great (it is by Markovic, also), acting of Mustafa Nadarevic is superb, Zoran Smijanovic's music is excellent as everything else in this movie.

It is a horror movie, which is not a typical Yugoslav genre, [besides "Davitelj protiv davitelja" (which is more like comedy) and "Leptirica" I can't think of another], but it is done in a way that Hitchcock would envy.

If any film deserves the Oscar then this is the one!

The best Yugoslav movie of all time

[mim-8 · 10/10 · 7 May 2000]

Vec vidjeno is the gem in Goran Markovic`s opus. Markovic is in my opinion the best Yugoslav director of all time, and his movies in a satirical way perfectly portrayed society and social distorsions in Yugoslavia at the end of 70`s and up to the mid 80`s. Vec vidjeno (or also known as Deja Vu), is however looking on the other side of life, and horror, with the unavoidable elements of society`s flaws, raging from before World war II, up to mid 70`s where the plot is set. This is the most complete, griping and artistic Yugoslav movie that takes you by surprise and stares right in your face up to the very end

The best film I have ever seen

[pavito · 10/10 · 20 October 2006]

"Vec vidjeno" is the greatest masterpiece of all times. Goran Markovic is one of the greatest directors. This film features excellent acting of Mustafa Nadarevic and Anica Dobra, charming and touching music, sounding in the film. The music creates this mysterious atmosphere which charming spectators. Crossing of today's events and past events made in a very appropriate way. And it proves the Markovic' skill. Look at the Anica Dobra and her appearance and you will realize that she ideally matches the film character! What about Mustafa Nadarevic? He matches even more! Look at furnishings of past events! How it corresponds to reality! The greatest work of the great director and actors!

Deep emotional scars resurfaced

[MovieFreak2403 · 4 February 2021]

This movie works better as a psychological drama, horror aspect is just a spice which concluded the gloomy atmosphere that was building up throughout the whole movie.

Mustafa Nadarevic really gave a monumental performance, he amazingly portrayed a deeply troubled and emotionally scarred middle aged man in the cynically socialistic world created by Goran Markovic.

It is important to look at this movie rather as a dark drama than a horror flick. Markovic has paid a great homage to the Yugoslav Black Wave movement with this one. His communist Yugoslav society was dr Frankenstein who was creating and shaping his monster for decades and in the end monster has done its bidding and in the process incepted its legacy further (kind of predicted the future of our society in the upcoming decade(s)).

From the technical standpoint movie was done carefully, but with a lower budget. The horror element is lacking the good ol' scare, except maybe for the last shot of the movie. The lack of real dread component is why I gave it 9/10. Nevertheless, it doesn't take much from it, the plot is phenomenal and it keeps you glued to the screen until the very end.

The sad fact is that we do not have more movies like this one, with the exception of the Yugoslav black wave examples and some early Markovic's movies I can't really find more. Maybe T.T Syndrome but even if it was influenced by Deja Vu it is was a much weaker work, although Zecevic's film is quite scarier thanks to the brilliant performance by another talented artist Dusica Zegarac. She set an example how just a facial expression can scare you more than an intense jump scene or gallons of blood and guts.

For me this is a 9/10 film it has a very smart plot, great acting performances (especially Nadarevic and Dobra), stylistically was done very well, very atmospheric. If you are into thought provoking movies that are well made this one is highly recommended.

not so good

[mudoje_srbendic · 5/10 · 20 February 2008]

considering rest of markovic's work, this movie takes low position on list of his movies, for someone else it may be average, but not for goran markovic. as we are used to negative associations for yugoslav communist authority in markovic's movies, same thing is presented in 'vec vidjeno'. movie is about the man who is piano teacher who wasted his exceptional talent, primarily because of his childhood traumas which effected the rest of his life to the point of absolute mental decay. he associates nowadays reality with scenes from his childhood (explanes movie title)and general atmosphere is very melancholic and heavy, but not strong or effective enough and that's the key problem