Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Rare Movie Critic On the face of it, this looks like a story about forbidden love, but as you examine more closely, you see the many, many layers of this story, something that very few countries could do well. Here, it is done very well, almost perfectly.Filip, a Serb, is called up to the Serbian army in WW1. He leaves his pretty Slovenian wife alone at home in a hostile Serbia seething with religious and ethnic intolerance towards Germans and Austrians on one hand and by extension Croats and Slovenes, regardless of their individual loyalties.Filip entrusts the safety of his wife, Lea, with Azem, an Albanian highlander. Azem gives him his word, or more than that, he gives him his "besa" (honor), which is way more than word of honor. For those who don't know - "besa" is the same word used for a promise of ceasefire between warring families engaged in a blood feud. If your enemies give you a besa and see you on the street, they cannot harm you. This goes way beyond bro-code.Azem, is a rural, illiterate man who at first doesn't seem to speak the language (Serbian) compared to the multilingual (Slovene, Serbian, German, that we know of), talented (piano, dancing) school-teacher, but Azem is street smart and lives in the real world and knows people better than Lea, who, at first, lives in a fantasy world where people would not harm her.At first, Lea feels like a prisoner in her own home and Azem treats her as such. She tries to escape, only to run into serious trouble and needing Azem to come to her aid.She doesn't understand the danger she is in from people who saw her as a German and erroneously thought her biggest issue is Azem.Eventually, the antagonistic relationship becomes friendship and a sort of romantic love. They are both prisoners in a way, Lea in some sort of house arrest (for her own safety) and Azem is a prisoner of his own promise. They are in an island all alone, among hostile and nosy neighbors on one hand and an arrogant and violent (Serbian) military presence on the other.The background or the outside world is bleak to apocalyptic levels. The Serbian army's initial wins ran out as reality caught up with them. The Serbian army, unable to face or defend themselves (or their families) from the wrath of Austria-Hungary and Germany, had to leave to the mountains of Albania. At the same time, a typhus epidemic was killing civilians and soldiers en mass.Azem and Lea were in an island of relative peace and Lea, not knowing if her husband is dead or alive, develops feelings for Azem, her only friend and protector.The two of them are, in a way, from different worlds, yet they are two faces of the same coin that is the (future) Yugoslavia, the west and the east, the town dweller and the highlander, the modern and the traditional, the shepherd and the teacher, the minstrel and the pianist.There are many themes here - forbidden love of a married woman, a man caught between his promise and his feelings, hate turning into love, a hostage-captor relationship of sorts, an adult student-teacher one too and more.Most films could only do one, simplifying a theme and repeating it over and over, (think 50 Shades of Grey) but this film has so much subtlety and depth.My issue with the film is that it's very slow and not very entertaining. It takes its time telling the story and the build up is very slow. The run-time isn't long (1h 46m) but there are not that many events in the film. The production is good, but not great. Music is underutilized as well.I give it a 7, but this is not a film for everyone.

Kirpianuscus a story of survive. a story of love. and a word. a beautiful film about Balkans and about traditions. fresco of a small world feelings. and the impact of war. Besa is one of films who has the science to discover the roots of its stories. and the roots are more important than the events because the rhythm, the force of gestures, the nuances of dialogues, the expectation, the slow definition of each new moment are only reflection of a long past who remains the only certitude. a powerful pledge about the beauty of insignificant details . a relation. and its grow up. two different cultures. and the common purpose. the film gives a special form of poetry .the poetry of rooms and gestures, words and a form of captivity, friendship and love. the well known emotions are new forms. and the film becomes more than portrait of a case but instrument to understand the manner to discover life from Balkans.

Armand a film like a map. or only a gem who defines, in delicate nuances, profound images, precise plot few deep realities of Balkans. it is a love story but in a manner different by usual definition. it is a beautiful story but, in same measure, a testimony about a world, a word, a special kind of sacrifice. a film about duty and force of a gray life. and an extraordinary performance of Miki Manojlovic. a film about war and romanticism but, in fact, only a movie about wake-up. about two people and a long expectation. in essence, the care to create each day for a wise vision about existence and the build of clear image about the other. a superb film. and a lot of causes for this verdict. must see it. maybe, for yours wake up.

Davor Blazevic It has taken almost a year and a half before Lea has fully understood the responsibility, resolve, dedication and devotion, ergo the true nature of the ultimately tempting and utmost sacrificial personal protection she's been subjected to...The year is 1914, when young couple of school teachers, a Serb Filip (Nebojsa Dugalic) and a Slovenian Lea (Iva Krajnc), find themselves working in the secondary school of the south Serbian provincial town, himself as a principal and herself as a teacher of rhythmics and dance. On the outbreak of the war, initially declared by Austro-Hungarian Empire to Serbia, eventually escalating to become the WW1, Filip is instantly called up by military and sent to Belgrade to serve in the forthcoming war effort, leaving thus his young and attractive wife alone. Having no one else to turn to, he asks Azem (Miki Manojlovic), the school custodian, to take care of her. Being a patriarchal Albanian, by accepting to do so, he gives to Filip his pledge, 'besa', to look after and protect Lea. In Albanian tradition such a word of honour is so obliging, that--in order to hold to it--one would even stake his life on it.Suddenly Lea finds herself in dire straits, and not only for being worried enough about the whole war situation, as well as for extensive detachment from her husband, but even more for becoming practically a prisoner to this simple Albanian (Arnaut in local language), overzealous to keep his word and protect her. On top of it, local community suspects her of spying for enemy. Namely, Slovenia, at the time, was part of Austro-Hungarian Empire... Fortunately, not before long Azem gains her full trust, because it becomes obvious that he's the best chance she could ever have in order to survive through the most difficult times, with her integrity preserved and honour untarnished.However, by having their interaction evolving towards gaining mutual trust and respect, they start playing with the fire that could've easily been ignited by what clearly appeared to be a spark of forbidden love between two people from such profoundly different backgrounds: well educated Christian woman, brought up as a Catholic, ergo having enough to deal with already, due to her marriage and conversion to Orthodoxy, and an almost illiterate man, yet, for all he knew, a traditional practicing Moslem… Dealing with multitude of intertwined questions about cultural and ethnic differences, religious and language barriers, social and class divisions, the ultimate question arises: whether the given word will stand the challenge of apparently honest and true, yet unexpected and forbidden love budding?With his well known, fluent narrative style, adding frequent spontaneous comic relieves even when dealing with heaviest subjects, director Srdjan Karanovic in his latest movie, "Besa" (2009), tells another, apparently, almost a centennial old, true life events inspired, engaging story, yet describing an infinitely older, nowhere-near-to-resolution conflict, and therefore, in its essence, still remaining right up to date and very well worth of contemporary audience's time and interest. Slovenian actress Iva Krajnc has fully justified her engagement in this complex role of Lea, while Miki Manojlovic, having had impersonated already, throughout his rich acting career, a multitude of individuals, most naturally predominantly of his own, Serbian but also Bosnian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Roma(ni)… origins, has added yet another among numerous Balkans ethnicities to the spectrum of the characters he has successfully brought on to the screen.