This is one trip to the childhood land that director Djurdjija Radivojevic invites us on.
Marco is the only child in the village he lives in. So it is hard for him to be overlooked or to escape from any of the responsibilities delegated to him – like school and homework – and it is also hard for him to truly connect to childhood as a real child. Adults around him mostly give him adult jobs that a child should not worry about in the first place… until one day… when a group of new children show up to help him fight against adulthood and adults intentions to exterminate childhood and children.
This is obviously a children’s game. But behind the narrative story there is a sad truth hiding under this metaphor…
The children’s apparition also marks somehow a border between two worlds – the real one and the imaginary one. The real one – the one Marco lives in – points to the influence adults have on children and their development; the imaginary one – in which the ‘visitors’ will initiate Marco – is one of fantasy and childish pranks.
It is a delicate way in which director Djurdjija Radivojevic sketches these two opposite worlds – the one of adulthood which kills the childhood’s imagination and energy depriving it from innocence and fun experiences that make a child explore and understand new emotions, and the one of childhood which frees a child’s spirit from boundaries and limits it in a way he will never experience again.
Growing up has never looked so ugly before… but in fact ‘If The Sheep Were Pink’ is a beautiful film with wonderful characters and a lovely taste of childhood. If you miss those times, feast yourself to it, you won’t feel sorry!
TMFF RATING:
