Directors: Otto Guerra, Ennio Torresan; Main Cast: Hique Gomez, Nico Nicolaiewsky, Otto Guerra;
An old man (Guerra) tells the story of his childhood in idyllic Sbornia, small peninsula separated from the rest of the world by a huge wall. He reminisces about the simple way of life with its quirks and peculiarities of his birthplace, about his father Kraunos (Gomez) and his good friend Pletskaya (Nicolaiewsky), both appreciated musicians that enlivened the evenings of the town. Besides the love for music and merriment, Sbornians have a penchant for drinking bizuwin, a beverage made with a local, slightly psychotropic plant, and axe ball, a rather unusual sport halfway between rugby and hand-pelota. The bucolic life of Sbornia is disrupted on a fateful day when the wall collapses due to an accident and the modern customs and different social mores of the outside world are brought to Sbornia. Pletskaya and Kraunos observe the reactions of their countrymen and showcase the different attitudes: while some quickly adopt foreign culture as Pletskaya, others prefer to reaffirm the Sbornian traditions and resist imperialism much like Kraunos. The latter witnesses, with increasing dismay, the dramatic changes without being able to prevent the inevitable doom. To complicate matters, Pletskaya falls in love with Coqueliquot, daughter of the magnate that is industrialising Sbornia to produce a soda flavoured with bizuwin. The film is based on the play “Tangos & Tragédias” and it is an insightful picture of social and economical changes in a small community with plenty of humour and amazing music. The authors of the play, Nico Nicolaiewsky and Hique Gomez, have also wrote and composed most of this movie’s great songs and happens to be the voices of the main characters. The animation and the drawing style are distinctive and appealing, the story has a good pace and it’s very entertaining. Lively —8/10
Ramblings of a cinephile 