Warsaw 2005

A Highway of Emotions
By Andronika Martonova

A red coloured truck that sometimes appears grey. At times, a bit funny and other times rather folksy, and, at the same time, very sincere - that's the colour-blind Bosnian guy Ratko (Srdjan Todorovic). And a wild Belgrade girl named Suzana (Aleksandra Balmazovic), who lives to the music of Guns n' Roses. A strange mixture of burning independence and well-concealed loneliness. These are the main characters in Srdjan Koljevic's film Red Coloured Grey Truck ( Sivi Kamion Crvene Boje ), a co-production between Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia, Germany. This film skillfully blends the road-movie genre with that of a love story, and this is the reason why the FIPRESCI jury awarded it the International Critics Prize at the Warsaw International FilmFest (7-16.10.2005).

It looks like Srdjan Kolevic has made this feature debut with one fell swoop and all in one breath. Red Coloured Grey Truck moves with at high speed in the best Serbian cinema tradition. It is fuelled with the typical Balkan sense of humour which always has a high octane level. The tyres of the dramaturgy neither wear away nor puncture, although the whole action mainly takes place in the driver's cabin and the possibility of falling into a gutter of boredom looms on every sharp bend. Koljevic's film crosses many thematical paths that come to the surface from below the horizon and aren't ever put in front of the audience like intrusive road signs. The main highway that the Red Coloured Grey Truck passes over is one of emotions. The basic idea is that opposites (of any kind - from emotional, human, and ideological through ethnic and religious, etc.) may blind us at first sight. But they can also show us the light at the end of the tunnel because Ratko and Suzana's trip is an enormous and beautiful metaphor. Simultaneously, it is a road to themselves and an amazing road to the other person. A road which proves that love really is love when it is not stopped by colours and traffic lights, when there are no insuperable distances of thousands of kilometres, or no restriction signs and radar traps.

Andronika Martonova
© FIPRESCI 2005

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