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The Great Water

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The Great Water (2005)

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71 %
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Reviews Counted: 21

Fresh: 15

Rotten:6

Average Rating: 6.1/10

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Theatrical Release:Jun 17, 2005 Limited

Synopsis: The Great Water begins when Lem Nikodinoski, an elderly Macedonian politician, suffers a heart attack and is rushed to the hospital. As doctors frantically treat him, Lems's mind travels back in... The Great Water begins when Lem Nikodinoski, an elderly Macedonian politician, suffers a heart attack and is rushed to the hospital. As doctors frantically treat him, Lems's mind travels back in time to when he was a twelve year-old growing up in a Macedonian orphanage... World War II has just ended, and like so many of his peers, Lem has been orphaned by war. With no family and no place to live, he wanders the war-torn countryside aimlessly, only to be picked up by communist soldiers and taken to a children's orphanage for ideological "reprogramming." As a child whose parents were regarded as "enemies of the Revolution," Lem, along with his peers, will be forced to accept Stalin as God for the good of the Communist Party and the new Macedonia. The orphanage itself is housed in a medieval fortress with high stone walls separating it from a vast lake. Headmaster Comrade Ariton, a rigid yet ambitious man, and the Warden's assistant, Comrade Olivera, a girl who obsessively worships the Communist ideology of the Great Stalin, rule the orphanage by fear and discipline. But the orphanage has its secrets. Late at night, Verna, Ariton's beautiful wife, almost magically appears and walks by the walls of the fortress. None of the guards can see her, only Lem, as she brings him what he seeks most: hope. With few friends, Lem looks to Isaac, a mysterious 13-year-old boy who has the courage to question the harsh communist authoritarians who run the orphanage, and the strength to endure the brutal consequences of such actions. With organized religion prohibited and no higher power to look to for guidance, both boys know their survival rests on each other's strength. The special bond the two share is forever shattered when Lem, in a fit of rage after discovering Olivera's blossoming romantic relationship with Isaac, destroys a sculpture of Stalin which Olivera had made. Isaac is accused of the crime, and suffers the punishment alone. When Lem goes to Ariton to confess what he did, Ariton decides he should keep what he did to himself because such a grievous act would forever destroy his standing in the party. As punishment for allowing the act to occur, Ariton is relieved of his post as headmaster of the orphanage. Stricken with grief, he attempts suicide only to have his wife stop him. Suicide will condemn him to eternal damnation, so she then shoots him herself at his request. Ironically Lem is actually rewarded for his loyalty to the party by being allowed to participate in a State-run academic competition, and his success at the contest allows him to leave the orphanage. --© Picture This! Entertainment [More]

Starring: Saso Kekenovski, Maja Stankovska, Mitko Apostoloski, Nikolina Kujaca

Starring: Saso Kekenovski, Maja Stankovska, Mitko Apostoloski, Nikolina Kujaca, Olivera Nedeska

Director: Ivo Trajkov

Director: Ivo Trajkov
Screenwriter: Vladimir Blazeveski
Producer: Suki Medencevic
Composer: Kiril Dzajkovski
Studio: Picture This! Entertainment

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Reviews for The Great Water

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
08/16/07
Dave Calhoun
Time Out New York

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
07/27/07
Mark R. Leeper
rec.arts.movies.reviews
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Time Out

Macedonian blockbuster is more successful as a technical accomplishment than as an engaging narrative.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
10/27/05
Matthew Smith
Film Journal International

Pic's balance of emotional truth in the hands of a talented cast and charged by Medencevic's lensing and Kiril Dzajkovski's powerfully moody score, reps a bold step forward for Balkan cinema.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
09/09/05
Robert Koehler
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It is an impressionistic, sometimes fascinating, sometimes frustrating, window into a culture and country that was long walled off from the West.

Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
09/09/05
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The cinematic version should have focused on the strength of the orphans' tales, without wasting time with story framing.

Full Review Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel | comment Comment
09/08/05
Laura Kelly
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

All of it, Chingo and Trajkov suggest, goes into shaping a Macedonian national identity uneasily poised between religious longing and ideological resolve.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
07/13/05
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The Great Water's greatest value is its depiction of a society that was as savagely committed to a false idea as its neighbor nations, but that somehow moved back toward reality -- and humanity -- before the Iron Curtain fell.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News | comment Comment
07/01/05
Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

You leave this film intrigued by its aspiration and not likely to forget the world it's introduced you to.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
06/30/05
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Portentous melodrama.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
06/30/05
Ella Taylor
L.A. Weekly

The atmosphere of doom and dark destiny is superbly rendered by cinematographer Suki Medencevic whose imagery can only be described as brilliant.

Full Review Source: Cinema Signals | comment Comment
06/21/05
Jules Brenner
Cinema Signals

Trajkov's conceit of periodically positioning the elderly Lem as a witness to his misbegotten youth, however, is a distraction, simply because it belongs entirely to Bergman.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
06/17/05
Ken Fox
TV Guide's Movie Guide

The Great Water is ultimately about the indomitability of faith, and the Christian symbolism is laid on thick.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
06/17/05
Jack Mathews
New York Daily News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Nicely acted and stylishly photographed.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
06/17/05
V.A. Musetto
New York Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Excellent performances by the boys keep you captivated, but by seeing only the beginning and the end of Kekenovski's life, you feel like you're missing a rather interesting middle.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
06/17/05
E! Online

... difficult to watch, and just as difficult to forget.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
06/16/05
Dana Stevens
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This unusual Macedonian release is engrossing if not always nimbly directed.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
06/16/05
David Sterritt
Christian Science Monitor

A drama revolving around Christian faith and rebellion in an authoritarian Macedonian orphanage after World War II.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
06/16/05
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
06/16/05
AV Club
 
 
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