Oktoberfest (1987) Online

"Oktoberfest" is a third feature directed by late Dragan Kresoja, former assistant director to Goran Marković and second unit director on many Serbian films that were among the most significant in Yugoslav cinema. Moving in the same direction as Paul Schrader, Kresoja's interest in peculiar individuals conflicting against the society are visible in two of his films that predate "Oktoberfest", critically acclaimed "Jos ovaj put" (1983) and "Kraj rata" (1984),but "Oktoberfest", was a turning point in his career and his approach to the subject.

Luka Banjanin (Svetislav Goncic), is an unemployed graduate living with his parents in Banovo Brdo, part of capital Belgrade, hanging out with few devoted friends, that are also going nowhere in a society that discarded young intellectuals, playing saxophone and dreaming of Oktoberfest, the annual beer festival in Munich. Being prone to be in a wrong place at a wrong time, Luka gets into trouble more than a few times, with the police, drug dealers, he has misfortune to know, and even a leader of the motorcycle gang, son of a police detective that is somehow always on Luka's trail, and on one of those occasions, just by being acquainted to wrong people, he gets caught on the border, coming back from school trip, with drugs that weren't even his. His passport was held indefinitely by the police and his dreams of Oktoberfest, that represents an escape from the reality are even more vivid, as his chances of leaving the country again, are getting thinner. These dreams are fueled by wild stories of beauty, colors, rides and beer, constantly told by his friend Bane (Zoran Cvijanovic)who was there before. Besides being stuck in with his employment and possibility of travel, he's also stuck with a relationship with a long time girlfriend Svetlana, who he doesn't care for any more, carrying the burden of lost love along with everything that has befallen upon him, and dreaming about half real/half fictitious girl that appears in his life like a mirage. His trials and tribulations are the centerpiece of carousel, on which different people have their hopes and despairs, love and hate, breakups and marriages, until it spins wildly at the end of the film, making you feel like you're flying through the dream and present.

In my opinion this may be the best movie Kresoja made in his career. Artistic and funny, sad and true, "Oktoberfest" aged well, and is always worth checking out.

Main character (Luka) has graduated from college in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, and he has traveled abroad and seen how people live there (because he lives in a half-military socialistic state). Recently, he returned from his trip and was arrested at the border on a drug charge. They only took his passport. He has no job, so he hangs around with his buddies combating against punk gangs and police. His big dream is to get his passport back and attend famous German beer festival known as Oktoberfest. However, the obstacles he faces are so frightening that by the time his mother actually obtains his passport for him, it's doubtful that he is capable of enjoying anything anymore. This film shows the (anti)esthetics of the 1980s Belgrade which does not exist anymore, through the eyes of the lost generation without any future except of going into 1990s Balkan wars.