Standards of 1990s Croatian cinema industry were so low that the best Croatian film of that period simply had to look as different from average Croatian film as possible. That task didn't require exotic locations, CGI or foreign actors. Being of different genre was enough, and most of Croatian films were, in one way or another, dramas related to 1991-95 war or country's traumatic past. The first Croatian film to deal with present and primarily designed to entertain the audience was Tri muškarca Melite Žganjer, 1998 romantic comedy directed by Snjezana Tribuson.
Protagonist of the film is Melita Žganjer (played by Mirjana Rogina), woman who desperately tries to lose weight. This proves to be very difficult because she works in a pastry shop. Unlike her man-eating roommate Višnja (played by Suzana Nikolić), she only dreams about love and spends all her free time watching South American telenovela "Slave of Love". The man of his dreams is much closer than she thinks, though. Janko (played by Goran Navojec), young man who delivers pastry, loves Melita but is too shy to express his feelings. In the meantime, Eva (played by Sanja Vejnović), policewoman and another of Melita's roommates, tries to set her up with one of her colleagues. Those efforts fail, but Melita's dreams seems to come true with Antonio Mulero (played by Filip Sovagovic), "Slave of Love" star who arrived to Zagreb to shoot a feature film.
There were some critics complaining about lack of originality in the script for Tri muškarca Melite Žganjer. Plot about overweight woman trying to find love looked borrowed from P.J. Hogan's Muriel's Wedding while other critics found similarities with Rajko Grlić's 1980s film U raljama života. Yet, in the context of 1990s Croatia all that looked refreshing. After plenty of films dealing with Croatian past, Tri muškarca Melite Žganjer was first one to unapologetically deal with Croatian present. The only trace of Croatia's recent troubles can be glimpsed in the costumes and props on the film set visited by protagonist. Tribuson is more concerned with another force that shapes Croatia's collective psyche - South American telenovelas. Far from ridiculing those TV shows, this film pays homage to them by having Croatian actors delivering huge sections of dialogue in Spanish. To do that, those actors had to invest more effort than usually displayed in Croatian films, and the quality of the acting itself launches this film high above the average. Directing, on the other hand, leaves something to be desired, especially in the scenes depicting Melita's kitschy world. But Tribuson, for the most part, handles the plot and characters very well. The film is not hilarious, but is funny enough to be entertaining. And this is something that very few 1990s Croatian films managed to do. For that reason only Tri muškarca Melite Žganjer deserves much more praise than its reputation, overshadowed by more serious films of the decade, might indicate.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on April 12th 2004)
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