Milcho Manchevski

KAYMAK: ménage à trois times two

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Sara Klimoska in KAYMAK. Courtesy of Kaymak.

Kaymak follows the relationships of two couples in the same apartment building in teeming Skopje, North Macedonia. Eva (Kamka Tocinovski), a rich banker, lives in the penthouse with her husband Metodi (Filip Trajkovic), who wants a child; Eva, not a candidate for Mother of Year, doesn’t want her life disrupted by the bother of pregnancy and childbirth, so she plucks a young relative, Dosta (Sara Klimoska), from the countryside to serve as a surrogate. Dosta is developmentally disabled and lives with her family in an impoverished, backward village. Soon, Eva and Metodi are getting more than they expected and more than they can handle.

The other couple lives in a modest ground floor apartment. Caramba (Aleksandar Mikic ) is a goofy security guard; Danche (Simona Spirovska) is always exhausted from pulling double shifts at a bakery. Day to day drudgery has drained their relationship of passion, and Caramba is always on Danche’s very last nerve. When Caramba meets the comely and oversexed cheese vendor Violetka (Ana Stojanovska), their lives, too, are upended.

The characters have lots of sex, both joyously kinky and cringingly transgressive. It gets very funny, and Manchevski even drops in a delicious nod to the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone.

Ana Stojanovska and Simona Spirovska in KAYMAK. Courtesy of Kaymak.

However, Manchevski imbues Kaymak with more meaning than a mere sex romp, exploring both the imperative to parent and the elastic strictures of of monogamy. There’s tragedy (and apparent tragedy) here, amid all the absurdity. Manchevski told A Good Movie to Watch, “People usually want their films to have a consistent and predictable tone. Now, my preference as a film viewer, but also as a filmmaker, is more adventurous. I don’t mind disruption. On the contrary, I cherish it.“

All the characters, rich or not, enjoy kaymak, a versatile creamy milk reduction used in the Balkans as an appetizer, a condiment and a fast food breakfast. 

Manchevski was Oscar-nominated for his acclaimed 1994 Macedonian feature Before the Rain. That Manchevski debut won the Golden Lion at Venice and was singled out as a masterpiece by Roger Ebert and The New York Times.  Since then, Manchevski has been teaching in New York and directed an episode of The Wire. 

Kaymak is his third film to play Cinequest, after Bikini Moon, my choice as the best film of the 2017 Cinequest, and Willow, a triptych that plumbs the heartaches and joys of having children. Kaymak is the raunchiest and most overtly comedic of the Manchevski films I’ve seen

The performances in Kaymak are all excellent. (Klimoska bears a passing resemblance to Kristin Stewart.)

Cinequest is hosting the US premiere of Kaymak. Find the trailer on the Cinequest Kaymak page.

WILLOW: a mother’s heartbreak, a mother’s joyous triumph

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WILLOW. Photo courtesy of Cinequest.

Willow is a triptych by Oscar-nominated master Macedonian filmmaker Milcho Manchevski that plumbs the heartaches and joys of having children. Willow contains the stories of three mothers and the heartache of childlessness, the heartbreak of losing a child and the emotional roller coaster of parenting. In Willow, a mother’s love can bring devastating grief and triumphant joy.

There’s a scene in the final vignette with a mother and son in a car that is one of the most amazing scenes I’ve ever seen.

There’s also a woman who is drawn to a man when she watches him act with profound decency – even though he doesn’t know anyone else is watching him. That launches a deeply beautiful love story.

Just about every parent has had a child vanish at the turn of one’s head, and plunges into panic, desperation and terror until the child is found. There is more than one of these scenes in Willow, and they are uncomfortable.

As a World Cinema bonus, we are introduced to the Macedonian phrase, “wash the bananas”.

Manchevski’s Before the Rain was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 1994. Most recently, he directed my choice as the best film of the 2017 Cinequest, Bikini Moon.

Cinequest hosts the North American premiere of Willow.

Cinequest: BIKINI MOON

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Condola Rashad in BIKINI MOON

In the astonishingly brilliant Bikini Moon, actress Condola Rashad’s blazing performance ignites Milcho Manchevski’s provocative story, resulting in the Must See indie at Cinequest.  A fictional movie crew discovers the potential star of their documentary project.  That star is a mentally ill homeless women named Bikini.  She says that she’s a military veteran and that she has a daughter.  The documentarians see that her emotional volatility, with its sudden and extreme outbursts, makes for great drama.  She’s also an enthralling raconteur with a gifted turn of phrase – and she’s beautiful.

Bikini is played by Condola Rashad in a performance so charismatic that it’s easy to see how the crew is seduced by her mesmerizing presence.  These folks are way out of their depth with Bikini.  They think she is their subject, but will she pull them, one by one, into her madness?

It turns out that Bikini really is a vet, and she has serious PTSD and, possibly, Military Sexual Trauma.  She is suffering from a raging, unmedicated bipolar disorder.  It seems like Bikini’s one predictable quality is the impulse to act inappropriately.

Will Janowitz, Sarah Goldberg and Condola Rashad in BIKINI MOON

Bikini Moon explores the natural tension between a documentary telling a subject’s story and a documentary exploiting a subject.  Here, the crew members have mixed motivations.  The director Trevor (Will Janowitz) doesn’t have any compunctions about exploiting his subject.  His girlfriend/bankroll Kate (Sarah Goldberg) appears to be much more nurturing and well-intentioned, as does Krishna (Sathya Sridharan).

Unforgiveably, Trevor takes Bikini and the crew into a situation can only further traumatize Bikini and looks to be dangerous to other innocent folks, too.  At first, we see Trevor, consumed by selfishness and a disregard for others, to be a jerk.  He may be way more functional than Bikini but his narcissism might rate him as unhealthy as she is.

Bikini has no social boundaries because she’s crazy.  Kate, on the other hand, seems like a conflict-averse doormat, and she has boundary issues, too.  She may intrude the most deeply into Bikini’s life.  Kate may take what she wants from Bikini through manipulation, all behind the guise of do-gooding.

Krishna is the least strong-willed and the most benign crew member.  Yet he may be the one who can make the film tell Bikini’s story by adopting her perspective, however mad and feral that perspective is.  That makes for a jaw-dropper of an ending to Bikini Moon.

Condola Rashad in BIKINI MOON

The core of Bikini Moon is Condola Rashad’s remarkable performance.  Her big, expressive eyes and sudden, charming smiles intoxicate both the documentarians and Bikini Moon’s audience.  As captivating as she is during Bikini’s outbursts, Rashad might be even more compelling in quieter moments, especially a moment of stillness on the courthouse steps late in the film; those around her are assured because she’s not flailing around  but we can see something very unsettling in Bikini’s eyes.  There’s also a remarkable solitary dance captured on the nanny cam.  She’s an actress seemingly created for the closeup, and the camera loves her.  An accomplished stage performer, Rashad was nominated for Tony Awards for her performances in Stick Fly, The Trip to Bountiful and A Doll’s House, Part 2.  She currently can be seen on television in Billions.

Bikini Moon is co-written and directed by Milcho Manchevski from his own story.  Manchevski was Oscar-nominated for his acclaimed 1994 Macedonian feature Before the Rain. That Manchevski debut won the Golden Lion at Venice and was singled out as a masterpiece by Roger Ebert and The New York Times.  Since then, he has directed three European features and an episode of The Wire.  Manchevski has been teaching in New York, and Bikini Moon is his first American feature.

All of Bikini Moon is photographed as part of the film-within-the-film documentary footage or as candid iPhone video or video from a security cam.  The cinematography by Joshua Z Weinstein is remarkably urgent and authentic, and shooting in the cramped spaces of apartment corridors must have been especially challenging. (His Twitter handle, by the way, is “@WeinsteinFilm”, clarified as “Joshua Z Weinstein – No Relation”.)

This is the entirely fresh and original work of a master filmmaker.  Condola Rashad’s performance is stunning.  Bikini Moon’s US premiere is the Must See indie at this year’s Cinequest.