Long Dark Night (2004)

This is the best Croatian movie I've ever seen. It not only shows the beginning of the second world war and how people change over this event, but goes on afterwords without letting you think that now the war is over everything is fine. It tells the touching story of a guy who tries to live as straight forward as his father did teach him. He has his opinion and he lives according to his morals, in spite of everything that's happening around him. That's how he gets stuck between a Jewish and an Ustasha (Croatian fascist) friend... This movie deals critically with the Croatian past and asks a lot of questions which aren't as easy to answer as one should think. Some people who lived through that time period and thought it so much better than today should watch this movie and ask themselves if they ever noticed that this was also happening, and if this regime was really as good as they think.

On April 2, 2005 I went to the "Cinema Croatia" film festival in Santa Monica to see DUGA MRACNA NOC. Goran Visnjic was there to introduce the movie. He explained that the movie is a distillation of scenes taken from the Croatian TV series, of the same name, that is presently airing in his homeland. He further explained that the 5 1/2-hour long, original director's cut, was edited down to the award winning (Pula Film festival), 3-hour theatrical release that was Croatia's official submission to the American Academy Awards best foreign film committee.I enjoyed the film and think Goran Visnjic masterfully portrayed of Iva Kolar, and made the character so real that I was immediately drawn into the movie. Mr. Visnjic's talented use of body language and facial expression, as well as the particular way he delivers his lines, is nothing less than genius."DUGA MRACNA NOC" is an intense story about how friendship and personal loyalty can ultimately mitigate the ravages of intolerance, war, and political upheaval. Its message of personal honor and love of humanity is something any one can relate to, and learn from.I am also following the progress of the TV series, "DUGA MRACNA NOC," now airing on HRT, via the detailed descriptions and dialog translations sent to me by a Croatian pen pal, as well as from watching video clips of the TV episodes that can be found at the Bleu Profond website (see miscellaneous links at IMDb's Goran Visnjic page). I look forward to obtaining the TV series as soon as it is published as a DVD or video.Nancy Lion-Storm

Great director. Antun Vrdoljak showed to us that not only he can make a spectacular, also that he can present the true horror in Croatia. Good plot, good actors (G.Visnjic and G.Navojec were great!) But I wanted something else. I don't know what, but I expected more(I don't say the film wasn't bad, in fact, it was excellent), but I just thought it will show something else. Because the story is going to fast, you can't know what will happen in the next moment, and things are happening in every moment. But I liked the film, enjoyed the series, loved the plot, the actors, the director.... Looking it in a perspective way, this film was a true story about the horrible things that happened in Croatia). So, if you're interested in watching this film, I truly recommended it!

This is one of the most expensive Croatian movies ever made. Unfortunately, one of the worst, too. This epic by Antun Vrdoljak, with its controversial evocations of the second world war in Croatia, represents the hard line and its seems like a high budget propaganda of "state" cinema. Vrdoljak doesn't know that social and cultural, instead of political, criticism penetrated much deeper and proved itself to be far more lasting than any type of political confrontation. In fact, that's not a movie but a series of "wise saying" spoken by the one-dimensional and totally unnatural and affected characters. Very boring and awkward direction, graced with the terrible acting makes this movie as one of the worst ever made in Ex-Yugoslav countries.