balkan black box

7 ½ (A Film of Seven Mortal Sins) – Sedam i po (film o sedam smrtnih grehova)

Regie: Miroslav Momciloviæ; 109 Min., SCG 2006 (OmE)
Wettbewerb: Golden Black Box Competition

Brotfabrik Kino, Sa, 18.11.2006 um 20:00 Uhr
ACUDkino, So, 19.11.2006 um 22:00 Uhr
babylon berlin:mitte, Mi, 22.11.2006 um 18:00 Uhr

Stolz, Gier, Lust, Völlerei, Wut, Faulheit und Neid - die sieben Todsünden der Bibel. Sie geraten zu Absurditäten im Kontext der modernen Gesellschaft. Sieben Episoden aus Belgrad.

7 stories ‘from the neighborhood’ are intertwined with the same leitmotif of Seven Mortal Sins, in a humorous way dealing with everyday lives of the people of New Belgrade (Novi Beograd) who are obsessed with their weaknesses and driven by passions. Nothing human is strange to them and they don’t hesitate to go beyond morality since they have a concept of their own ethics.

We follow the destinies of two bums who want to trick Diego Maradona (Greed), two middle aged men on the verge of pedophilia (Lust), a bodybuilder who seeks for revenge (Anger), a couple of cocktail party lovers (Gluttony), married couple in a TV quiz (Pride), two lazy thieves (Sloth), two middle aged idlers who envy Bosnian refugee (Envy), till the catharsic finale.

Yet the story of Seven Mortal Sins doesn’t tend to moralize – it discovers that there is and should be a moment of catharsis and redemption although the characters make mistakes. Their lives, in Christian terms, aren’t sinful, and their weaknesses are caused by the context we live in.

Greed, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Pride, Sloth and Envy – those are Biblical sins but they became almost absurd in a context of much worse problems of modern civilization.

Therefore, this story repeatedly calls out for laughter. To conquer the fear and problems, to be self-ironic to laugh at themselves – it's the way of transcending one's pain. The heroes get hurt by the fact that they need so little but at the same time so much to be happy.


GREED story

KEBOJA and RADULE are bums who want to trick Diego Maradona sending him pathetic photos and video tapes and asking him for a financial help because of a fake health problem – an action which leads them to the madness of growing greed.


LUST story

OBRAD and RADOJE are politician and police inspector who share the same voyeur passion – they meet by Internet chatting and dating by faking real identities. They love to watch pictures of young girls but never cross the line of pedophilia.

ANGER story

TADIJA is a bodybuilder hooked on steroids who wants to revenge for a humiliation once faced as a kid.

GLUTTONY story

ADAM and VERICA - a couple of cocktail party lovers who visit art exhibition openings in order to eat and drink, this time accidentally eating off a modern art installation – human fat jelly.


PRIDE story

SRDJAN and ZORICA are married couple exposing their private dirty laundry in front of millions of watchers of TV quiz program loosing one million Dinars prize.


SLOTH story

SIMKE and KONDA are sophisticated thieves who are lazy enough to climb upstairs to the top of the skyscraper to break and entry rich men’s apartment.

ENVY story

MUSA and BANJAC are middle aged idlers who envy Bosnian refugee, BURE, a man who started his own fast food business. Finally, they help the man giving blood for his wife in labor.

Criticized by the author, those picturesque characters are given the chance to redeem themselves at the end.