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Petrijin venac Movie Review

Petrijin venac (Petria’s Wreath) is a 1980 Serbian drama film directed by Srdjan Karanovic and starring Mirjana Karanovic. It is one of the best Serbian films of all time.

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“Man is like poultry. He likes to live“

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Petrija’s life is riddled with a string of tragedy-related events, all of which occur one after the other. Three men play a great role in her life and are closely connected to her sorrows. This film was released in 1980, a year that also saw the release of ‘Ko to tamo peva’, begging the consideration of it being the greatest year in the history of Serbian cinema. It was a seminal movie that also saw the debut of Mirjana Karanovic and it remains among the best dramas ever to be produced in the country.

This is a very difficult movie to watch. In fact, it’s so dreary, desperate and horrific that watching it feels as if your soul is being drained by the experience. While undoubtedly the movie has that issue that plague most tragedy stories in existence, which is the fact that they pile misfortune upon misfortune on the protagonist way too much to the point of the plot seeming unrealistic, every single plot development individually was very believable and grounded in reality, which made the film even harder to take.

Set before, during and after WWII, Petrijin venac does depict Serbian history, but only sporadically. We witness the destruction of villages and how communism affected the local communities and especially businesses, but the choice to focus firmly on Petrija and her own journey was a smart one as it led to a more intimate and emotionally powerful viewing experience.

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This is the story about women and how tough their lives were back then in all of the Balkan region. So many scenes here are excruciatingly painful to witness, including the death of Petrija’s very young children and her banishment by her first husband. The movie felt painfully realistic in how it depicted the men during that time as they were obsessed with their mothers first and foremost while their wives were being treated as second-class citizens. The extreme poverty, ignorance and lack of basic human empathy are all unfortunately believable in this context.

The stoicism and the optimism that we see from Petrija is also very much grounded in reality as this is how most Serbs operate. Despite all odds, this woman still retained her will to live, even joking about her horrendous living conditions and history filled with sorrow and tragedy. This tone made the movie even tougher to take, but that final scene was so inspirational in that spirit of perseverance and strength, and filmmakers from Europe should take note of this as this is the way to go with these stories, and not the nihilistic overtones. Life must go on no matter the circumstances.

Petrijin venac is superbly performed by its very talented cast. The men are all very well realized and wonderfully acted. Pavle Vuisic and Marko Nikolic are terrific themselves, but it is Dragan Maksimovic who stole the show with the best supporting performance of the bunch. But of course this is a one-woman show after all and Mirjana Karanovic deserves all the praise in the world for delivering such a powerhouse performance in a very demanding role. She is thoroughly believable in her nuanced and moving depiction of Petrija. Had she been American, she would have undoubtedly walked away with an Oscar for this once in a lifetime role.

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Petrijin venac was also phenomenally directed by Srdjan Karanovic, who was here at the beginning of his career, but he still knew to let the actors themselves tell the story and not overwhelm it with unnecessary flourishes with the exception of that artistic opening and ending. Those sequences were strikingly unique and unforgettable as is the film’s poster. The score is fittingly ethnic while the editing and pacing are also deft. It’s a highly engaging, though at times overly dark and difficult to believe story.