15/11/2023 - Montenegrin filmmaker Ivan Marinović’s dark comedy alights upon some very unhappy nuptials

Snježana Sinovčić-Šiškov and Tihana Lazović in Forever Hold Your Peace

Wedding sequences in cinema, from The Godfather to Melancholia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lars von Trier
film profile], tend to be deployed for dramatic irony, often serving as a counterpoint to later scenes of misfortune. Forever Hold Your Peace [+see also:
interview: Ivan Marinović
film profile], the second feature by Ivan Marinović, which has premiered in Tallinn Black Nights’ main competition, takes the foreboding aura of an archetypal cinematic wedding and cements it as the primary, mostly real-time location, with an unexpected coda further knocking expectations off course.

Forever Hold Your Peace has the feel of a daylit nightmare, leaving emotional pain and confusion stranded in the country’s lushest of coastal climes, the photography by Dominik Istenič abounding in shimmering sapphire shades and limestone greys. In the foreground, though, we have the frowning pair of Dragana (Tihana Lazović) and Momo (Goran Slavić): the former, a physiotherapist, has developed the coldest of cold feet, dreaming of boarding a plane to London to continue her studies and restart her life; her fiancé idles his days away at the construction site he’s employed at, her waning happiness catching him unawares.

Following the satirising of religion in his previous feature The Black Pin [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivan Marinovic
film profile], here Marinović is mocking Montenegro’s unbending gender politics and staunch social expectations, exposing Dragana and Momo’s nuptials as a parade of deceit. Their respective parents, and their seemingly robust marriages, loom intimidatingly over them as examples to comply with. Momo’s father, Leso (Momčilo Pićurić), harbours a particular sway; for a “strong, silent type”, he has the most charismatic screen presence of the entire acting ensemble, his face a crumpled mask of indifference and judgement.

With the script’s opening act climaxing with Dragana’s insistence for the whole wedding to be cancelled, and Leso agreeing to a “deal” whereby it’ll be annulled after they’re married to dodge the potential embarrassment for all the onsite guests and local well-wishers, the middle portion finds us cringing as we register Momir excitedly processing what should be the first day of the rest of his happy life, not knowing the nasty shock – of the day’s “void” status – that awaits him. Marinović’s direction transcends the “sitcom finale” levity that this premise, the buoyant acting and the staccato repartee of the dialogue suggest, whilst also steering clear of a Chekhovian dourness where laughter is eclipsed too soon by bitter tears.

The sole “B-plot” is a thin thread involving Leso’s estranged brother Lavandulo (Nikola Ristanovski), who’s lived in numerous countries, been married three times, and represents a worldliness that contrasts with every folk tradition and character seen here, with the further caveat that the latter endearingly maintain their integrity and absence of pretence. Forever Hold Your Peace meticulously evokes the sort of post-ceremony dinner and celebration that curdle into acrimony, leaving each guest gradually feeling like an uninvited and unwanted one, but the material and story progression are just too thin, overly reliant on the lively Balkan atmosphere and unable to capture the characters’ particular pain.

Forever Hold Your Peace is a co-production between Montenegro, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Croatia, North Macedonia and Slovenia, staged by Adriatic Western, Sense Production, Analog Vision, Kinorama, Krug Film and SPOK Films.