Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Rotterdam, this delightfully absurdist road movie channels Jarmusch and Kaurismäki in telling the story of a young woman visiting Bosnia to find her estranged father.
Handsomely shot, with a brash candy colour palette and skittish, off-kilter framing… Take Me Somewhere Nice captures perfectly the tone of insouciant adolescence.
Take Me Somewhere Nice 2019
A Dutch-raised Bosnian teen finds herself a stranger in a strange land when she returns to her homeland in this stylishly off-kilter coming-of-age flick turned road movie. Ena Sendijarević’s debut feature delivers the same deadpan joy as her excellent short film Import (NZIFF17).
Upon learning that her long absent father has been hospitalised, Alma (Sara Luna Zorić) decides to travel to Bosnia to find him before it’s too late. When she arrives in Sarajevo without much of a clue, Alma’s shady black-market dealing cousin Emir gives her a frosty reception and refuses to help. A dye-job gives her a new look, but a busted suitcase leaves her stuck with the summer dress she arrived in. After a brief flirtation with Emir’s goofball ‘intern’ Denis, Alma decides to strike out on her own.
Unashamedly influenced by the likes of Jim Jarmusch and Aki Kaurismäki, Sendijarević takes Alma on an amusing and absurdist journey through the Balkan countryside. Beautifully shot in a boxy Academy ratio with an eye for quirky and colourful composition, Take Me Somewhere Nice consistently surprises and marks Sendijarević as a young filmmaker to watch. — MM
“To come of age is to be neither young nor old. To be Dutch or Bosnian, to be native or immigrant, to be citizen or nomad: adolescent uncertainty is twisted and stressed through these complex cultural affiliations… Alma is at the edge of womanhood, gazing into a fractured world that reflects – what else? – a fractured self… Playful, delightful Take Me Somewhere Nice frames and articulates this spatial and psychological confusion.” — Joseph Owen, The Playlist