A film called Guardian Angel about a television journalist investigating the smuggling of Roma children from what was then Jugoslavia to Italy as buskers, beggars and prostitutes, trying to save one boy, a talented musician... Surely the title refers to the hero.
Not when Paskaljevich directs it, it doesn't, and Dragan isn't a hero either. He may think he is; he spends the whole film with a half-smile on his face as if he believes his fame makes him invulnerable, but in the end he accomplishes nothing but his own death. The true Guardian Angel is the man who owns the boy and his earnings for a year and to whom- for all his brutality- he must return for the sake of the family who sold him. It's a pessimistic, realistic, almost documentary film, convention and comfort removed. The social worker who tries to take care of the children deported from Italy knows they will run away or be kidnapped. In a more conventional film there'd be a romance between Dragan and her, but here their relations are entirely professional. The Roma characters- as usual with Paskaljevich- are played by nonactors and real encampments round rubbish dumps are used: a world where a good man is one who doesn't sell his own children to the Guardian Angel. Grim, relentless and unillusioned, it's easy to see why Paskaljevich isn't as well known as he should be, he offers no comfort, but if you can see this film, do so.
Not when Paskaljevich directs it, it doesn't, and Dragan isn't a hero either. He may think he is; he spends the whole film with a half-smile on his face as if he believes his fame makes him invulnerable, but in the end he accomplishes nothing but his own death. The true Guardian Angel is the man who owns the boy and his earnings for a year and to whom- for all his brutality- he must return for the sake of the family who sold him. It's a pessimistic, realistic, almost documentary film, convention and comfort removed. The social worker who tries to take care of the children deported from Italy knows they will run away or be kidnapped. In a more conventional film there'd be a romance between Dragan and her, but here their relations are entirely professional. The Roma characters- as usual with Paskaljevich- are played by nonactors and real encampments round rubbish dumps are used: a world where a good man is one who doesn't sell his own children to the Guardian Angel. Grim, relentless and unillusioned, it's easy to see why Paskaljevich isn't as well known as he should be, he offers no comfort, but if you can see this film, do so.
