SHADOWS
Directed by Milcho Manchevski
Produced by Micho Manchevski, Amedeo Pagani, Corinna Mehner, Nermin Gladers, Martin Husmann, Dimitar Gochev, Gerardo Herrero & Mariela Besuievsky
Released by Mitropoulos Films
Macedonian with English subtitles
Republic of Macedonia/Germany/Italy/Bulgaria/Spain. 119 min. Not Rated
With Borce Nacev, Vesna Stanojevska, Sabina Ajrula-Tozija, Salaetin Bilal, Ratka Radmanovic, Filareta Atanasova, Dime Iliev & Petar Mircevski
 

What is cinema’s preoccupation with desecrated burial sites? How many movies have to be made before this topic has finally run its course? Perhaps Macedonian director Milcho Manchevski is not aware that there is an entire genre of movies devoted to the spirit world diaspora, where souls who have a bone to pick wander the earth haunting those who still use VHS players or have wells hidden in their backyards. That genre is commonly known as J-horror.

Shadows is Manchevski’s third film, following the well-received Before the Rain (1994) and the more recent Dust (2001). Exactly what the urge was to tell this particular story is a mystery. The film brings nothing new to a tired movie genre (The Sixth Sense, The Ring, etc.) except, perhaps, for its beautiful Mediterranean locations and the nakedness of several lovely Macedonian women. Machevski’s camera lingers on the women’s bodies to the point where you feel a little complicit in his salaciousness.

The story follows Lazar Perkov (Borce Nacev), son of a renowned physician Dr. Vera Perkova (Sabina Arjula-Tozija) and himself a medical resident at the local university hospital. After an argument with his wife, Lazar—or Lucky as he is known to his loved ones—leaves his apartment. Moments later, he is in a terrible car crash. As a crowd gathers and emergency vehicles arrive, someone pulls Lucky out from the debris only moments before he would have been crushed under the wreckage.

As often happens in movies prone to clichés, the story picks up one year later. Lucky, now mostly recovered, inexplicably leaves his wife and son at the family’s seaside home. On his first night back home, he encounters a venerable woman cleaning his apartment. She speaks in a dialect he can’t place and repeats a phrase that induces him to seek out the university’s linguistics professor. Rather than finding the professor in his office, Lucky meets a waif-like young lady, Menka (Vesna Stanojevska), who claims to be the professor’s daughter. The two have undeniable chemistry, but her mood swings are as perplexing as the severe bruises on her neck. And that’s just one of many odd encounters in Shadows. Besides the old lady who keeps showing up in and around Lucky’s apartment, often in the company of a wolfish-looking dog, there is also the guy with the bleeding feet holding the baby and who always seems to be waiting for the elevator—not to mention the tarty young thing who lives upstairs and takes her boyfriend up to the roof for hot sex in the rain.

In the production notes, Manchevski describes the film as a “slow burn,” but at 119 minutes, Shadows feels about 30 minutes too long. The ending, involving family secrets and a box that suspiciously rattles when picked up, is entirely predictable. Most importantly, Lucky, as played by the comely Mr. Nacev, sleepwalks through most of the movie. The film could have used a far more dynamic leading actor to provide a real anchor.  Adam Schartoff
January 30, 2009