Info

Original Title: Ti mene nosis
Country: Croatia | Slovenia | Serbia | Montenegro
Director: Ivona Juka
Release: 2015
Genre: Drama
Language: Croatian

22.01.2020: This review was first published on 18.05.2018 and is being updated for a more complete review, together with the publishing of the YouTube Version.

Hello! Welcome to Ulven Reviews!

Ivona Juka is the director of the Croatian drama Ti mene nosis, or You Carry Me, about three females (two women and a teenager) and the relationship with their father.

World Cup Historic

The present Croatian national team only formed in the ’90s and got recognized by FIFA and UEFA in 1993, before that, they were part of Yugoslavia.

Since their establishment, their first appearance in the cup was in 98 when they reached the third place beating the Netherlands. After that, they were only out of the 2010 edition.

In 2018 they reached the Finals, losing to France. With this fantastic World Cup run, Luka Modrić won the best player of the World Cup, the Ballon D’or, and FIFA The Best.

Prelude

Dora (played by Helena Beljan) is the daughter of the makeup artist Lidija (played by Nataša Janjić) and the thug Vedran (played by Goran Hajdukovic A.K.A Čupko). Vedran was out of the country for four or five years, leaving Dora and her brother with Lidija.

Dora is obsessed with becoming a Dinamo Zagreb Manager, watching and mimicking the words of Zdravko Mamić. She avoids stepping over Dinamo’s crest painted on the floor and daydreams about negotiating players while watching a Dinamo’s practice.

The mother, Lidija, is a makeup artist in a soap opera production, not the greatest mother, but does her best considering the circumstances.

The director of the soap opera where Lidija works is Ives (Lana Baric), an explosive woman that had a great relationship with her father, Ivan (Voja Brajovic) until the Alzheimer’s began to deteriorate his former self.

The producer of the soap opera is Nataša (Nataša Dorčić), she is in her forties and pregnant, then she finds out some things that drastically change her life to worst.

Ti mene nosiš

I liked the storyline of Vedran, his attempt to become a better man, and his love for the kids. Vedran was involved with criminal activities when he was out of the country and kept this behavior when he got back to Zagreb.

Like Vedran, Čupko has a criminal history. He is (or was) a member of Bad Blue Boys (BBB) a Dinamo Zagreb group of Ultras, becoming involved in fights, attempted murder, and was in and out of jail several times.

He is not the greatest of actors, but his effort is at least respectable, considering that, even with his limitations, he characterized Vedran well enough to be one of my favorite characters.

Continuing with my favorite storyline of the movie, we have Dora, Vedran’s daughter. She is my favorite character and also, in my opinion, gave the best acting, although I know it’s not a unanimous opinion.

We can see how positive was the relationship between Ives and her father through flashbacks and in the present when his mind is levelheaded. But I don’t think they were accurate representing Alzheimer’s, they went a little over the top.

Ives’s storyline is the most boring of all, it seems like they didn’t have enough actual story, so they stuffed random scenes, like Ivan doing crazy things and symbolic dreams.

Now, the last was Nataša’s storyline, it’s slightly less tedious than Ives’s. Nataša is a likable character, and I enjoyed how her story unfolds. You can care for her, and you cheer for her.

The acting of the movie is terrific, and besides the ones I already mentioned, I would like to highlight Nataša Janjić as Lidija, she did an extraordinary job in the film, even though the character was not as appealing.

All the stories within the major story of the movie are satisfactory plotwise. Each one has a different father-daughter dynamic that could make the viewer engaged, but they failed in the execution.

I watched The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King extended version with 4 hours and 23 minutes without getting bored. Lenght is not something that bothers me per se. You Carry Me has 2 hours and 35 minutes, it’s long, but its sin is being tedious, not lengthy.

The development of Dora’s story was in the midpoint, and that was what helped me finish the movie. I was demotivated, and her story gave more endurance.

The movie has stunning shots that were ruined by the shaky camera, but you can find decent stills. With the film running, it has a more shaky camera than the Bourne franchise, but it’s a Drama.

Talking about drama, the director took the word way too seriously. The characters cry a lot, all the time because tragic events are pilling up, but after so much misfortune, you stop caring.

The artsy and symbolic scenes could easily be left in the edition room floor without affecting the plot at all. Neither works, the artistic seems forced, and the allegorical is obvious.

P.S.: I forgot to mention it in the video, but the score is also a positive point of the movie. It has a very depressive sound that resembles Post-Metal a little.

After finishing the movie, I got the impression that it was not as bad as the first hour suggested, it’s a boring movie with some questionable decisions but with some good redeeming points. 5 Moons.