Customer Reviews

Spare Parts (Original SLOVENIAN version with ENGLISH subtitles)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First off, this is a "film movement" movie. I wouldn't have known about it except that when I was unemployed I went to the library to get dvd's. After awhile I started to look for any dvd that was released from this dvd release club. The movies are from all around the world and they are mostly much better than average.

"Spare parts" stands out in my mind because it blends the geography, economics, and history of Slovenia to give this story momentum forward in a naturalistic manner. The characters have a life of their own much like what the Dardenne brothers are doing with their own movies. Had a large distributer picked this movie up it would have become an arthouse favorite.

If you liked "Rosetta," "The Promise," "The Child," and /or "The Son" then you will certainly enjoy this film.

This downbeat film from Slovenia follows the lives of two men who illegally transport third-world refugees across the border into Italy. Set against the noisy excitement of motorcycle racing and the ominous presence of a huge nuclear power complex, the danger of their own illicit work takes on a kind of dreary routine, in which death and misfortune become simply part of the cost of doing business. Lost and without a future, Ludvik has only his past glory as a racing champion to give his life some meaning. Meanwhile, mourning the loss of a young wife who has died of cancer, he chain smokes and drinks himself regularly into oblivion.

His young assistant, Rudi, is a novice at this kind of self-obliteration, objecting at first to the callousness of the men who transport the refugees and appalled when he learns of the fate that awaits many of them. But as the film progresses, he too surrenders to the mind-numbing conditions of his line of work - an occupation that has ironically sprung into being with the birth of the European Union. At the end of the film, Ludvik ruefully observes that Hitler also attempted to create a unified Europe, though he went to "extremes," but this trafficking in humans is no different in its effect - the death of the soul.

SPARE PARTS (a/k/a "Rezervni deli" in Slovenian, 2003, Slovenian with English subtitles, 87 minutes) shows an ugly side of Eastern Europe which I hope is mostly gone now. Ludvic (Peter Musevski), a hard-drinking chimneystack of a man, smuggles illegal immigrants of all kinds from the Eastern Bloc (Slovenia) into Europe proper. Apparently he's been doing it for many years.

Young Rudi (Aljoa Kovaèiè who is also known as Aljosa Kovacic), apparently an orphan, is his sidekick and assistant. Ludvic is as close to a father as Rudi has - they smuggle human cargo together, chatting as if on any ordinary job while sweating bullets over their charges. They do genuinely care about the immigrants, but what can they do? As part of a smuggling ring, they tend to be hardened, heartless and practically subhuman - a phenomenon that seems pandemic all over Europe.

This film is terribly sad and a seemingly endless, depressing cycle of pointlessness. Ludvic, once the motorcycle racing champion of Slovenia, is dying of cancer. I leave it to you to watch this and decide just what sort of life lessons this film teaches. It should not go completely unappreciated in American eyes, since we know a bit about the "coyotes", smugglers who bring in Mexicans and others across the Mexican border.

The simple present actions of this film will bring tears to your eyes, guaranteed. The production is excellent and the acting is superb. It is a typically slow, pointless and depressing-looking Euro-job, but I think as with all such films you'll find a certain meaning of life if you watch closely. Although there is swearing and an ugly (though blessedly not shown) situation with a young lady, this is a straightforward watch and I recommend it even for teens as educational.

Sometimes high art is in the weirdest places.

Incidentally, "spare parts" is a reference to what happens when Italians smuggle the immigrants: the immigrants are killed and their organs sold on the black market, hence "spare parts".

"At least they don't end up as spare parts with us," Ludvic tells Rudi. "A liver alone can go for 15,000 Euros."

I had a very hard time with this film sustaining my interest. Overall, I felt the acting was mediocre, as was the cinematography. I usually know within the first 5-10 minutes if a film is going to sweep me away and take me into another world for a couple of hours. This one did not.

A personal depiction of the human dramas that evolve in the process of illegal immigration - from Eastern to Western Europe. In the light of the recent concerns of the many European countries on the subject of their new citizens and neighbors, this is a good reminder of what price the illegal immigrants have to pay in their Pursuit of Happiness.

I thought they did a great job of developing characters but I do admit there were places the acting could use some help. I thought most of the actors did a great job. Im agreeing with all the reviews to a small point but they succeed in bringing you into their world.

I especially loved the history, politics and economy issues rolled into the movie. Maybe a five is high but the characters make it worth watching. Definately the buy. It captures a period of slovene history so brief I fear it will be forgotten.

One of the characters even discusses it and the EU. lol

Weak cast and direction don't quite pull it off. Strong theme, though. No doubt about it.
I wanted it to have a greater impact on me emotionally than it ultimately did.

What can you do? Not every director is a Claude Chabrol or Akira Kurosawa, and not every actor is a Chris Cooper or Seymour Hoffman or Marlon Brando. Neither is every actress a Carol Baker. Carol Baker was one amazing thespian in her time.


Could be am being too harsh here. Not sure. That's the way I see it so far.