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The Black Pin Movie Review

The Black Pin (Igla ispod praga) is a 2016 Montenegrin dramedy film directed by Ivan Marinovic and starring Nikola Ristanovski. It’s a surprisingly solid movie that is actually quite witty.

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“If you’re miserable in this life,

most likely it will be the same in whatever comes after“

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Peter, a misanthropic orthodox priest returns to his idyllic Montenegrin peninsula to nurse his demented mother. He quickly gets into a conflict with superstitious villagers over a property deal as they seek creative ways to chase him away. For a newer movie coming from the Balkans, The Black Pin is a surprisingly confident, professional and polished feature, not just in the area of technicalities, but also in writing and acting.

The standout here is definitely Nikola Ristanovski. This Macedonian actor stole the show from the rest of his acting team in what is truly an impressive turn in a very complex, intriguing role. Petar himself is way too salty and unlikable in certain scenes, but he has an interesting, though familiar backstory and his interactions with the other villagers are increasingly comedic. But the character works mostly thanks to Ristanovski’s terrific, believable acting as he stands head and shoulders above all else here.

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Seka Sablic as his demented mother was simply miscast and not all that great unfortunately. His teenage son is underdeveloped, but the villagers themselves are uniformly very memorable and amusing. A bunch of this film’s charm and strength comes from the priest’s annoyed reactions at them.

The Black Pin became way too jocular in the third act’s proceedings. It felt like a farce and it stands in harsh contrast to the film’s more serious first half that, yes, was amusing, but with a different kind of biting black humor that I appreciated more than the farcical nature of the third act. The tone surely is all over the place and far from balanced.

I also found the backstory underwritten and the film’s runtime too short for its admittedly rather complex, layered storyline full of interesting personalities and a great potential to explore some interesting themes, but it only skims through most of them.

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Still, the feuding over selling a plot was a fun storyline that seemed especially relevant for this region while it was executed in such a way that others could follow it too. The direction from Ivan Marinovic is surprisingly strong for a debut feature while the movie is shot in such a way as to emphasize the sun-drenched, rocky terrain of Montenegro wonderfully. The score is also fittingly folk.

The Black Pin (Igla ispod praga) is an unexpectedly solid Montenegrin movie. It doesn’t strike the most confident balance between the comedic and dramatic elements with the farcical third act being its weakest point, but the first half is particularly potent in its interesting themes and biting dark humor. Though the protagonist is too salty, Nikola Ristanovski’s performance is magnificent. The movie is also surprisingly well directed and polished in its look. It’s a peculiar, region-specific dramedy that somehow largely works and is especially worthy of praise in the context of an otherwise mediocre state of the cinema of the Balkans these days.

My Rating – 4