16/08/2023 - An American lawyer goes back to her native town in Montenegro, where she navigates both the local social landscape and her own emotional one, in Senad Šahmanović’s striking debut

According to Eastern Slavic mythology, Sirin is a creature with the head of a beautiful woman and the body of a bird, usually an owl, that, like the Ancient Greek Siren, lures men to chase it until they lose touch with the Earth and die. It usually symbolises unattainable happiness. Sirin [+see also:
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Šahmanović opens the picture with a flashback to 1993 and the event that still traumatises people in three countries of the former Yugoslavia. During the war, members of the paramilitary forces of the Republika Srpska boarded a train in the village of Štrpci, and abducted and executed 18 male passengers from it. Their only “crime” was having Bosniak names. The whole thing is observed from the perspective of a little girl who, thanks to her very existence, manages to save her father’s life.

Back in the present day, the same train stops at a similar location, and it seems that one of the passengers, Nathalie (Serbian-Danish actress Danica Ćurčić, recently seen in Murina [+see also:
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Luckily, Nathalie is actually from that area and speaks the language, although she would prefer to be seen as just another American investor type. However, memories and relationships cannot be forgotten that easily (after all, she was born there under the name Sanela) and, seeing the rift between Sanja, Andrija and his wife (Jasna Đuričić, of Quo Vadis, Aida? [+see also:
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Sirin is a proper piece of actors’ cinema, and Ćurčić once again offers a master class of subdued acting that channels strong emotions which are hard to express out loud. Luckily for the other members of the ensemble (along with the aforementioned thesps, there’s also Nikša Butijer and Lidija Kordić as a father-daughter duo running the local hotel, Izudin Bajrović as a shady mayor and Momčilo Otašević as a young, ambitious contractor), she does so in such a way as to avoid dominating or eclipsing them, but still draws them into the interplay, so they seize the opportunity to breathe life into some meaty, lifelike episodes.

The craft components are on a high level, too. Šahmanović’s directing is measured and functional, while the cinematography by Aleksandar Janković, the editing by Tomislav Pavlic and the original score by Ivan Marović are put to good use to faithfully paint a picture of the protagonist’s state of mind.

The only thing that could be considered a flaw could be the fact that Šahmanović and his co-writer Claudia Bottino are using the real, traumatic event only as the lead character’s distant background, rather than pointing more of a finger at it. But, as a film of human emotions and a metaphor for the ever-futile quest for success and happiness, Sirin is a very strong piece of cinema.

Sirin is a co-production led by Cut Up Films (Montenegro) in co-production with Sekvenca (Croatia), On Film Production (Albania), Buka Production (Kosovo), Dokument (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Alliance de Production Cinématographique (France).