We organised a film critic workshop for high school students in collaboration with Cinedays 2018 and Critical camp. This is one of the reviews written during the workshop.

A perfect mix of chaos and everyday struggles- “The chaotic life of Nada Kadić is a Bosnian film released in 2018, based on a true story. The director, Marta Pidal, as a foreigner coming from Mexico, definitely did a great job while not understanding a word her actors said. The main actress, Aida Hadzibegović, is actually the woman on whose life the film was based. The film, as a no-budget film, made in the Balkan region, where this kind of work is totally rare, is well done.

The story of the film is about a single mother with a child with an autistic disorder. She lives a fast, dynamic life; she’s always in a hurry and has too many things to do. But even in these conditions, she always tries to do her best and to live in a perfect balance between the life of a normal woman, a mother and a worker. A thing that is very interesting about the movie is the fact that the daughter in the movie is the actual daughter of Aida and that she also has an autistic disorder in her real life. In most of the scenes, the behaviour of the daughter is her actual behaviour.

Summed up, this movie makes a perfect image of the everyday life in Bosnia. The story takes place in several locations – such as Sarajevo, so the audience can also see how life is lived there. Except that, the whole scenography is great. The atmosphere in the house truly shows the life in a Balkan household. The messy floor, the fridge with letter magnets on it and all the other details actually form a simple, well-known place. Most of the visual elements didn’t surprise me, but the scenes where the child’s point of view was shown, were the best part of the whole movie. They perfectly showed the aspect of which the people with autistic disorder see the world.

Taking into account the fact that most of the actors in the film are amateurs, they did a great job. There were scenes, of course, in which they didn’t perform perfectly, but again – they are not professionals. But, even though these things were great, the camera work was awful. The whole movie is recorded by hand and except the child perspective, everything is recorded as a third person’s vision. The biggest mistake that the directress probably made is not having music in the film. It adds monotony to it and makes it harder to watch.

The directress also did a good job, except in the scenes that are a little bit strange because of her insufficient knowledge about life in this area. Even if the movie is drawn out, a little bit monotonic, and would maybe be better off as a short movie, it has a good point and is worth watching. It made me better understand the people with an autistic disorder and also to respect the single mothers.

So, even if maybe it’s not the best movie I’ve ever seen in my life, its idea is great, and it is really good for a no-budget film. Normally, some things are very good, and other things might be odd, but the film as a whole gives us a great story and 85 minutes of enjoyment. I recommend everyone to go see it and enjoy it.

Veronika Gijovska