Step right up and experience a three-ring circus of bawdy fairytale delight. In a visually sumptuous debut by Serbian director Uroš Stojanovic, the curtain rises on two sisters, Ognjenka (Sonja Kolacaric) and Little Boginja (Katarina Radivojevic), living high in the mountain village of Pokrp. Their beauty stands out against battle-scarred twenties-era Serbia, a phantasmagorical landscape full of potent magic and myth. They live under the legacy of their late grandmother, who cried eight days and eight nights for her dead husband, producing a salty and bitter lake of tears.
Now the village is one of widows, as nearly all of the men were eradicated in a lengthy war. In an episode of sensual overexertion, the sisters accidentally kill Old Man Bisa Pokrp's sole surviving male. They are accused of witchcraft and sentenced to be burned at the stake by the enraged female villagers.
Granted a reprieve after promising to deliver a living, virile replacement within three days, the feisty pair set out into the world beyond. Upon discovering modern fashion, they transform into Belgrade babes and cross paths with the Charleston King (Stefan Kapicic), a slick dance-hall dandy, and the Man of Steel (Nenad Jezdic), a buffoonish circus performer. Fear of their granny's angry ghost thwarts their selfish desire to keep the hunks for themselves, and they are pulled back to Pokrp. But will the village of ravenous and randy widows remember how to love?
One of the region's most expensive productions ever, Tears for Sale is an erotic and darkly funny journey into Serbian folklore and tradition. It's an allegorical fantasy about the Balkan nightmare seen through female eyes, in which meaningful lives are remade from scratch and the joys of life must be celebrated, even in the hardest of times. Working with a sweeping score by Wong Kar-wai's composer of choice, Shigeru Umebayashi (In the Mood for Love), Stojanovic crafts a world of black-and-white magic where bats and butterflies flap their wings together, the local bar serves spider brandy that summons waltzing ghosts and a vineyard bears a harvest of landmines. Dance into the night in the lusty caress of Pokrp's widows as they take delight in understanding and experiencing true love.
Colin Geddes
Uroš Stojanovic was born in Belgrade, Serbia, and graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, where he made the short film Gallows for Two (97). Tears for Sale (08) is his first feature.