Made in Yugoslavia

A swedish suburb in the nineties. In the garage of a villa a man has locked himself in, while his family is outside trying to get him out. At first it’s just his wife, then his son turns up, then his brother, then his other brother. And so on. The crowd grows bigger, the methods to get him out more desperate and crazy. The reason for his self-chosen imprisonment is that the Yugoslavia he was born and raised in – and hoped to return to – will never be the same again. The war that will tear the country apart has just started. Debutant director Lazik – who also wrote the script – starts in the chaotic present and then uses a well planned and beautifully shot flashbackstructure to tell the story from the beginning and give the information and explanations in small doses. We learn that back in Yugoslavia the brothers had a dominant father and dreamed about the promised land way up in the north of Europe. We see that the dream is just that, how Sweden turns out to be a bit trickier and more unwelcome than the family first thought. MATTIAS DAHLSTRÖM