Take Me Somewhere Nice (2019)

Directed by: Ena Sendijarevic | 91 minutes | drama | Actors: Sara Luna Zoric, Ernad Prnjavorac, Lazar Dragojevic

Alma, a Dutch-Bosnian girl, travels to Bosnia in ‘Take Me Somewhere Nice’ to visit her ailing father. Together with her cousin Emir and his charming friend Denis, she travels through a wonderland of pastel colors. This coming-of-age film is about life between two worlds. Between the Netherlands and Bosnia and not knowing fear, but also being afraid. Director Ena Sendijarevic tackles complicated themes such as migration, identity and sexuality in an absurd and humorous way.

It soon becomes clear that the form of the film is more important than the plot. Instead of the predictably gray streets you would expect from a country from Eastern Europe, Ena shows a much more colorful Bosnia. Buildings, streets and people are dressed in lilac, light blue and pink colors. It is a construction made by the director. In terms of style, it is sometimes reminiscent of the older films of the Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (‘Dogtooth’). Still, the form threatens to take over, making it feel somewhat crafted and making it more and more difficult to really get carried away by the story.

Leading actress Alma (Sara Luna Zorić) is a strong character, who no matter how hard she falls, gets up every time. It goes from bad to worse and as a viewer you wait for the moment to break. However, if that happens towards the end, you will not feel satisfaction. Fortunately, the film continues after that and you find out that in the world the director has created, emotion just doesn’t work as we know it.

Director Ena Sendijarevic put himself on the map with a number of award-winning short films of which ‘Import’ was selected for the Cannes film festival. ‘Take Me Somewhere Nice’ is her first feature film. Sendijarevic explores the boundaries of filmmaking by confirming stereotypes and clichés, but then also undermining them again. All in all, ‘Take Me Somewhere Nice’ is a daring, playful film, in which Sendijarevic shows that as a filmmaker you have to dare to take risks.