Underplayed Gems

The Optimists (2006)

The Optimists poster
Original title
Optimisti
Directed by
Goran Paskaljević
Genre
drama film
Country
Serbia and Montenegro, Serbia
Runtime
1h 38m
Rating
6.7 of 10 from 10 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

The film is a black comedy made up of five separate stories. It follows different characters in modern Serbia as they face misfortune, corruption, and irony. The film was inspired by the satirical novel Candide.

darkly comicepisodicsatiricalbleakunsettlingthought-provokingensemble-drivenabsurdist

What happens

The Optimists (Serbian Cyrillic: Оптимисти) is a 2006 Serbian black comedy film directed by Goran Paskaljević. The film, presented as five unrelated narrative sequences, was inspired by Voltaire's 1759 satirical novel Candide. The Optimists features an ensemble cast of Serbian actors with Lazar Ristovski appearing in all five stories. The film premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and was subsequently screened at several other film festivals, earning multiple awards. The 51st Valladolid International Film Festival named Ristovski Best Actor, and the film won the Youth Jury Award and the Golden Spike award as the best film of the festival. The Optimists was included as part of a retrospective exhibition on director Paskaljević at the Museum of Modern Art in 2008. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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