All the Cities of the North Film Difficulty Ranking: 5
If you want to take a step into the world of slow film, I recommend reading our introduction here first. If you’re already a veteran of slow film, or are looking to tick off Bosnia from your film map All the Cities of the North may be for you. Let me know what you find!
Why Watch All the Cities of the North?
- To see a film from Bosnia (a first for FilmRoot)
- If you’ve seen a few of the Slow Films on FilmRoot and want to see more!
- You’re not after a fast-paced thriller, but a reflective film where the most exciting moment is when a guy blows into a bottle
- For something to meditate to
The Breakdown
This film opens with a still shot of a man sleeping in a tent. Slowly he starts to move and you see a compilation of shots showing him: sharpening a stick, eating berries off of a tree, and washing the tent. It’s not thrilling stuff, this is the world of slow film.
As per a typical slow film, there’s little dialogue and a lot of long shots in which nothing much happens. In this case, there is no dialogue, the talking you hear is a couple of contemplative narratives.
The film takes place at an abandoned holiday resort in the former Yugoslavia. Two men camp and live together on the resort and what we see is the mundane things they do there, from berry picking to washing.
The only break from the script comes in a few shots of one of the weird complexes that Yugoslavia built in Lagos. The complex in Lagos also now in disrepair, but like the Yugoslav complex, local people have started living here. Whether this is symbolic of the fall of communism or renewal is never clear.
Conclusion
If you’re interested in learning about slow film, I recommend starting with our introduction to slow film. If you’re already a veteran then you may find something in this film that I missed. Perhaps it was because I wasn’t able to watch this film in a whole sitting that I didn’t find as much in it as A Mysterious Object at Noon or From What is Before. If you find something interesting, please comment below!