Rondoabout

In the former Yugoslavia of the 1960s, a love triangle emerges through music.


Roundabout by Croatian director Zvonimir Berkovic is a film-sonata of extraordinary grace. Selected as part of the Critics’ Week at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival, this tale of love and friendship among young, affectionate and sensitive adults unfolds within a secluded realm that belongs only to them. Indeed, the outside world serves as a visual, poetic backdrop, rendered surreal by the three protagonists, who ignore all notions of politics in a country which was still part of the Soviet bloc. There is only beauty, art, play… and feelings that transcend all else. Berkovic’s camera glides as if sleepwalking as the trio maintains their rituals. They play chess patiently, dance, listen to music (pop, Mozart or jazz) and set off fireworks… The diffused gray and white smoke gently seeps through and finally sets the characters’ hearts ablaze as they eagerly  and dangerously draw closer to one another, creating a thoroughly compelling ballet. Roundabout is a truly beautiful discovery.

Virginie Apiou