The original title, which was perfectly translated to the English as "To Guard a Mountain" sounds a little stupid and confusing since the whole premise has nothing to do with protecting a mountain but to find a lamb that escaped from a ill-constructed fence. A suitable title would be "Search in the Mountain". Small shepherd Isa (Besim Murtezani) did that and now his father is forcing him and his younger brother Hamid (Altin Axhani) to find the lamb and bring it home. But when Hamid is struck by a lightning and gets injured, Isa must decide what to do next: it he takes his brother with him and leave the now found lamb behind; or try to take both, or just the animal.
Story's pacing is OK, the effective special effects are quite surprising in the already mentioned moment; good cinematography; the boys are fine actors and carry the whole movie with dignity during difficult scenes. But I didn't find much need for a story like that to exist and found quite irritating the scenes involving the father being harsh to his older son, very much like "Padre Padrone". I know it's a reality, that's the way peasants treat their sons educating for their future (which is going to be the same as their fathers, mostly) but said reality is featured in many other films and what's the point? And of course, the conclusion had to be with a shocking pleasant moment. It's a story about growth, about children having responsibilities, enduring hardship after hardship and the most fun they can ever have is smoking a cigarette without their parents know about it. That's life and it was this movie. Watchable but fades away quickly on your mind. 6/10
Story's pacing is OK, the effective special effects are quite surprising in the already mentioned moment; good cinematography; the boys are fine actors and carry the whole movie with dignity during difficult scenes. But I didn't find much need for a story like that to exist and found quite irritating the scenes involving the father being harsh to his older son, very much like "Padre Padrone". I know it's a reality, that's the way peasants treat their sons educating for their future (which is going to be the same as their fathers, mostly) but said reality is featured in many other films and what's the point? And of course, the conclusion had to be with a shocking pleasant moment. It's a story about growth, about children having responsibilities, enduring hardship after hardship and the most fun they can ever have is smoking a cigarette without their parents know about it. That's life and it was this movie. Watchable but fades away quickly on your mind. 6/10
