Surviving Earth: Slavko Sobin is a beguiling presence in this well-crafted debut
Croatian actor Slavko Sobin is the emotional core of Thea Gajić’s sensitive debut film, which follows a Serbian musician and recovering addict who is trying to keep his life on track.
Addiction narratives tend to tread a well worn path – twelve steps with faltering along the way. And on the other hand, addiction happens to unique individuals. Always the same; always different. Thea Gajić’s debut film tells the story of Vlad, a Serbian musician and recovering heroin addict, played by Croatian actor Slavko Sobin in a performance at once loose and intense. He plays the harmonica and writes the lyrics for a band playing a traditional Balkan sound and works at a drug centre, counselling addicts. He’s also rediscovering his relationship with his daughter, Maria (Olive Gray). She’s an artist and looks at her dad with wary adoration, who is by turns charismatic but prone to moments of rage.
His situation is precarious in part through his own gnawing dissatisfaction. He wants his band to be bigger but freaks out when the audience increases, or a potential promoter rubs him up the wrong way. He wants to get back together with his former partner and Maria’s mother (Ann Ogbomo), but she has told him it’s over. He ignores calls from the council about his flat: they come up on his contacts as “Council: DO NOT PICK UP.” His experience as a soldier and the push-pull relationship with his family back home add additional pressures, but there’s also the sense – as one of his friends bluntly puts it – “You’re a self-sabotaging bastard!”
As problems stack up, Vlad’s resistance to his urges begins to ebb. With his presence in almost every scene, Sobin is the core of the film and is a beguiling presence, likeable but volatile. His performance is well-gauged as his desperation increases to the extent that one of the addicts he’s supposed to be helping ends up asking him if he’s alright. He isn’t. Olive Grey also deserves her share of the plaudits. She’s impressed by her dad, especially by the Serbian tradition he represents and his creativity, the kind she is pursuing herself. But he also scares her. Grey plays it all with exceptional sensitivity.
Olan Collardy’s camera gives a realistic feel to the film’s Bristol locations, the music clubs and housing estates and the warm reddish cocoon of Vlad’s flat. The music by Hugo Brijs has a central role to play but some of the music scenes feel too fleeting. But Vlad himself is driving the narrative on, creating his own problems, driven by his own dissatisfactions.
► Surviving Earth is in UK cinemas 24 April.