Raindance: LOVELESS ZORITSA

A gem!  LOVELESS ZORITSA is a dark comedy that’s a combination rom-com and FINAL DESTINATION movie about an attractive young woman cursed: any man who falls in love with her will die a terrible death. Her childhood sweetheart is walking with her along a lakeside cliff when a seagull poops in his mouth and he loses balance while trying to spit the poop out and falls into the lake and drowns. A rock guitarist is electrocuted in a freak accident. Another man has a giant rock fall from the sky and squash him. Zoritsa is trying to lift the curse - since it gets in the way of her lovelife when every man who is interested in her dies.

Oh, the reason for the curse - she is the first women in her family born without a mustache! The family portraits on the walls of her house are a riot, and the ghost of her Grandmother plays a role in the film - bringing a laugh every time you see her *massive* mustache.

Zoritsa is told by a fortune teller that if she burns the grave of her first love/victim the curse will be lifted - so she goes back to her home town (where she was banned due to the body count) to burn the grave... This is the best *shot* film I have seen in a hell of a long time - it has amazing lighting (like a 40s technicolor movie) and luxurious dolly shots. The production value is *higher* than most current Hollywood films, amazing for a Serbian film. The graveyard scene is amazing - stylized and creepy, like something from a Tim Burton film... in fact, that’s what this reminded me of: Tim Burton.

As men around Zoritsa drop like flies, a small town cop who was original trying to capture her ends up on the run with her when the villagers chase them with the typical pitchforks and torches that villagers have in FRANKENSTEIN movies. The film features a funny tractor vs. Vespa chase, lots of fun scenes... and the more time the small town cop and Zoritsa spend together the more he falls in love with her... and now he wants her to lift her curse before it’s too late!  A really original romantic comedy mixed with elements from Universal horror films and beautiful Tim Burton style production design and cinematography.



This is the kind of gem you discover at film fests that makes going worthwhile. If I were a studio executive I would just give these people money to make movies and let them do whatever they wanted - because LOVELESS ZORITSA is a great entertaining movie with a completely different way of seeing the world... a film that will satisfy both arthouse audiences *and* mainstream cinemagoers. One of my two favorite films from Raindance so far (along with HOW DO YOU WRITE A JOE SHERMANN SONG?).

- Bill