Well, this is one heck of a way to ring in the new year. This is the first film I’ve ever seen from North Macedonia, and it’s certainly an interesting introduction to their film world. What we have here, basically, is an arty, biblical, post-apocalyptic, violent, semi-comic-book-inspired film with Santa Claus in it. That sounds like a lot to take in, and it is to an extent, but I did still come away from this film trying to engage with what it was trying to convey. I won’t say it’s as well constructed or executed as other interpretable films, though I don’t think the film was entirely shooting for “high-class, refined art” in the first place. Still, it was entertaining to watch and think about, and does make me wonder what specific Macedonian or even Eastern Orthodox elements I might be missing in this film. I’ll give you a brief idea of the plot, or should I say, “plots.”
The film contains three stories. The first takes place in the future after the apocalypse, and follows Kuzman, a man being executed for stripping in front of a religious idol in a church. The tribes-folk believe that this act cursed the tribe and caused all of their children to die, so they sentence him to death via firing squad. However, after unloading hundreds of bullets into him, it’s found that he can’t die (or, as the priest puts it, “the ground won’t take him”). He is left alone to wander for the rest of his days, though he seems to just want to end it all. One night, he meets a homeless man who offers him a shave and to tell his future. Kuzman rebuffs this at first, but eventually decides to humor the man. The guy tells him that he needs to go read an ancient scripture on the wall of an old building if he wishes to finally pass on, though he must first contend with “the man with green hair.” Kuzman sets out for this building, which turns out to be an old, destroyed opera house. There he meets the man with green hair, who looks like a cross between the Joker and the Comedian and talks like Bale Batman. They have a gunfight for a while, but Kuzman eventually overtakes him and heads into the basement. There, he reads the scripture the man mentioned, which seems to consist of the names of various people, including his own. After this, he goes to a house with an (at-first) unidentified woman covered in tattoos of all the events that have happened so far. It appears that she will be the last stop on his road to death. I’ll leave this story here for now, though I may need to mention the ending later for discussion. The second, and shortest, story concerns the first ever marriage recorded on film. At first, everything is upbeat and happy, but it soon comes to light that the bride and groom are sister and brother respectively. This causes a big kerfuffle which ends in the other brothers shooting the groom to death…oh, and the homeless man is there too. The final story takes place on New Year’s Eve 1999. Santa Claus, or perhaps just a mall Santa, is walking around the town and seeing the festivities. Unfortunately, he is less than thrilled with the debauched displays he comes across and he eventually goes back home to his apartment. However, the landlord is there having a wake for his deceased brother, which seems to be going rather respectfully, but eventually devolves into the same craziness we saw much of outside. Meanwhile, the homeless man is in the other room giving the dead brother a shave. Again, I won’t say where this goes, and I’ll try to be as non-spoiler-y as I can in my discussion.
The overall idea of this movie seems to be that the past, present, and future are and will always be messed up. Each point in time within this movie contained horrible acts such as violence, incest, drug use, general debauchery, persecution, and many others. In doing this, the film seems to be pushing back against the idea going around at the time that the new millennium will mark a new age for mankind where everything will move forward and “be better.” Goodbye 20th Century argues that nothing much will change in the end, people will still be doing the terrible and stupid things that they often do, even if the faces, names, or environments change. This sort of perspective does make sense coming from North Macedonia, one of the Balkan nations, an area that has often been either at war or teetering on the brink of it throughout history. Experiencing this sort of consistent horrendous and destruction would certainly make one more cognizant of humanity’s negatives, though this sort of recurrence of violence and such is not unique to the Balkans, as I’m sure many nations would attest to. The ultimate message seems to be that all we can do is just try the best we can to be better as people or salvage what we can from the “destruction,” which might be seen as some to be rather pessimistic, but it isn’t necessarily wrong and there is a glimmer of hope in it, even if it comes across as though the film might not entirely believe it itself. It’s interesting that the film chooses to use a healthy amount of biblical parallels and metaphors, even starting off the proceedings with a quote from Genesis. This is rather fitting, given the concept of “destruction of the old and negative in the hopes for a new, more positive world” that the film puts forth. Interestingly, in the very first scene, there’s a boat stranded out in the desert right where the tribes-folk “execute” Kuzman, and in the final story, Santa tells one of the characters to build a boat for the coming apocalypse. The film is definitely leaning hard on the Noah parallel here, and I have to wonder if the boat we see and the one that’s mentioned are meant to be one and the same. Kuzman’s immortal state is a common element within the bible, the most famous being Jesus, of course, but I am aware that there are others. I find it interesting that the idea seems to be that in order to pass on, he has to see his name written on a wall of names, almost as if he has to see his place within the pantheon of history in order to cease existing corporeally. This could be read a few different ways, such as “records and remembrance are the only true immortality” or possibly that one must find their place in the afterlife before they can truly become a part of it. I’m sure there are other interpretations, but those are some that I thought of. The homeless man seems to be based off the idea of the immortal oracle, a being who has lived throughout history and can perceive the future. The choice to make him a hobo might be tying in with the “history repeating and nothing changing” idea, as someone who has journeyed around and seen so many things would probably have seen enough to know how repetitive human behavior and history can be. It’s also interesting that he seems to be a part of the gatherings portrayed in the latter two stories, as he’s the cameraman in the second and is seen shaving the dead brother in the third. Could this be trying to show that he’s something of a facilitator, that he helps events to happen, or is it just that he likes to get involved in events that are already going to happen? Or does his future sight compel him to do either of these? I’m not sure, but it is something to think about. The last big piece of biblical analysis I want to throw in here is during the meeting of Kuzman and the unnamed tattooed woman. At one point, Kuzman is lying in a bathtub watching TV (which has somehow survived the apocalypse, a possible comment on the media’s ever-present hold upon us or something) when the woman dumps a bowl of apples in the tub with him. The apple, of course, is the most common image of the fruit of knowledge depicted in the story of Adam and Eve, so it could be said that this act is meant to represent a temptation of sorts (which would make sense, considering where this scene ends up going). It could also signify a transition, as when Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they were no longer able to live in the garden, so too is Kuzman no longer able to live on the mortal earth. Honestly, I’m sure there’s many ways you could look at a lot of these metaphors, and I’m not a Christian myself, so there might be a lot that I’m missing when looking at all of this. Add to that any specific cultural perspective from North Macedonia that an American wouldn’t understand, as well as any possible East Orthodox interpretations, and I could certainly be missing a lot in my review. However, much like the previously reviewed Valerie, I do think that this can make films such as this more intriguing to watch, research, and think about. However, I will say that this film is much less polished than something like Valerie, or even films such as The Holy Mountain (which I may or may not cover later on this blog, not sure). The production values are clearly coming from a lower budget, and there’s plenty of pulp influence in here that steers it away from “higher art,” such as the aforementioned Joker/Comedian and the cyborg-priest at the beginning. In a way, you could look at this as the B-movie version of arty films like Valerie or Mountain, but in a way, I think that kind of makes it more unique. The blend of arty symbolism and tone with brash violence and action makes for a film that will entertain below and above the belt, to put it one way. It might not be as well-conceived as some films, and it might not provide the all-out trashy entertainment that others do, but the midpoint between these extremes makes Goodbye 20th Century a unique experience and will still leave you with something to think about afterwards (at least to a degree). If nothing else, I’m glad I saw it, and I think it makes for a very interesting watch on the holiday season.
So, in the end, I would recommend you go see Goodbye 20th Century. I might not end up being an all-time favorite, but it’s certainly its own movie and you have to respect it for that. Sadly, it was only ever released in America on VHS and might be hard to track down. I managed to see an upload on YouTube, the transfer of which had certainly aged, though not too drastically. Whatever way you manage to view it, make it a point to say goodbye 2021 with Goodbye 20th Century.