The Croatian writer-director’s elegiac Sarajevo competition entry stars Marija Skaričić and “Safe Place’s” Juraj Lerotić in a moody meditation on modernity and tradition.
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In the opening of “Small Things,” Zvonimir Jurić’s elegant and understated chamber drama, the giggling grandchildren of an elder patriarch (Bosnian film and theater veteran Izudin Bajrović) show their charmingly clueless pops how to operate a smartphone. Later that night, along with the kids’ mother Irena (Ivana Roščić) and aunt Anica (Marija Skaričić), the crew plays a round of “Who Am I?” where the cards read both former Yugoslavian songstresses and western celebrities like Paris Hilton and Lady Gaga. From here, modernity’s encroachment weaves through this family reunion in less obvious and more existentially crippling ways, which the Croatian writer-director — making his return in competition at Sarajevo 12 years after his last feature “The Reaper” — unfolds with a whispered, windswept melancholy suited to the somber Adriatic island setting.
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