(Feature film, Serbia/Germany/Hungary, 2007, 106’, Color, OVFST) |
Synopsis:
A father faces a tough moral dilemma in this claustrophobic thriller. When his son requires an expensive life-saving operation, a mysterious stranger offers a solution, but the question is how far the father is willing to go to save his son.
Review:
“The picture is beautifully executed by director Srdjan Golubovic and a first-rate cast. Golubovic composes eloquent, subjective shots that encourage us to share the protagonist's mounting desperation. Similarly, the script and direction both contain many sharp touches. For example, during the scene where Mladen and his wife request a loan from a bank officer, the banker smilingly rejects their plea; when a furious Mladen asks why he is smiling, the loan officer tells him that his bosses require a smiling countenance in any interaction with customers.
The film's portrayal of contemporary Belgrade, a shimmering metropolis with a sense of danger lurking just beneath the surface, is acute. Glogovac conveys a palpable sense of anguish as the screws tighten around Mladen. As his wife, Natasa Ninkovic is deeply moving, and the engaging Marko Djurovic as their son helps to heighten the urgency of Mladen's dilemma.
Even at a time when foreign films face rough sledding in the U.S., this movie has enough suspense to guarantee rapt audiences. Mladen's moral disintegration makes for a thoroughly involving cinematic experience.”
Stephen Farber
“The Trap’ is a film about an ordinary man who is forced to choose between the life and death of his own child. It is a story about the moral dilemma of the protagonist, who can only save the life of his son by accepting to become a killer. It is a story about a man who is trying to exchange death for life, to substitute his misfortune with someone else’s. It is about an event that can bring salvation to his family, and suffering to another family. It is about the freedom of choice, which actually doesn’t exist …
‘The Trap’ is a ‘personal story’ kind of film; in a way, a contemporary Balkan version of ‘Crime and Punishment’. It is about the crime that saves the life of the protagonist’s child, and the punishment that comes from within.”
Srdjan Golubovic
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