*spoilers alert*
I recently started to watch Netflix (Ikr I’m like gazillion years late from everyone on planet Earth) my satellite TV isn’t working great these days and I hate having to pay a lot of money to a bad service. So, with Netflix on my PC and mobile phone, I began to flick and save a ton of movies into my list.
What took me in for The Maus is the synopsis that mentioned the Bosnian war. I can’t tell you how affected I was by this early 90s war, because I was born a year before and I remember watching it all over the news, the grisly bloody photos of people laying dead on the street, which later I knew were apparently being shot randomly by the Serbs. I had nightmares of a war where I live and losing my parents in the war…I mean I literally got so entrenched in it. I used to watch a lot of documentaries and look for movies or a remake of anything on the subject. So it’s only natural for me to check this out!
Firstly, I knew no one of the 4 actors in this movie. But heck the main actress Alma Terzic is AMAZING, and after some digging I realized I’ve watched her in In The Land of Blood and Honey. I never saw August Wittgenstein before but damn he’s hot. Although I can’t. stand. his character in this movie. I find myself agreeing with the 2 villains…’FUCK THIS GUY’ he was oblivious to his shortcomings in a situation he never had to deal with before in his life, and downplaying the trauma and emotional abuse a surviving war victim could’ve endured. From the start he was shown as having good intentions, and the audience get that, but the way he projected himself on Selma (Alma Terzic) is annoying and downright emotionally abusive to me. How could Selma took him as her boyfriend???! I mean seriously I won’t even if he’s hot, tall and have a good-guy persona. Lol the movie is really slow moving but you get this enveloping feeling of claustrophobia from the vast unforgiving forest. It’s amazing how the camera work fuck with your mind that you’re dreading every minute. You know that they’re confined in this unknown place that gradually untie the knots in Selma’s harrowing illusions of what’s in the past, in the current and something otherworldly.
The Maus really picked its pace when the first landmine scene happened. Contrasting with the seemingly beautiful day with the sun shining through the trees, the forest was a witness of arguably the worst war crimes of modern Europe. And you realize the amulet that Selma possess, is harboring a kind of mystic protective power to her. All the while Alex (August Wittgenstein) is behaving like a total asshole, with good intentions and sky high moral ground 🙄 What unfolds was shocking and hellishly confusing. But not in a dizzying way. You’re invited to decide for yourself what the fuck actually happened. It’s like a multiple ending fucking movie but it somehow doesn’t feel like it (idk how to word this lmao). The scene nearing the final grand nudge to everything you thought you understand about the story is imperative to make your own mind about the ending, where the two main actors found themselves in a tight spot…morality or revenge?
I found a great comprehensive review that offered 4 possible explanations. I have to say I agree the most with none of it but a reader’s comment (unfortunately it was anonymous) :
It makes the most sense to me. How confident Alex seemed to think of himself and his actions and the fact that Selma had to suffer in the hands of the same Serbs that could’ve been the men that killed her family. They were out there to get her ‘kind’ and the ‘protector’ didn’t take it seriously and failed to stop the senseless killings. This is followed through by the ending where it’ll just completely unsettled your thoughts. There are no closure, only the aftermath of violence begets violence.
TL:DR
A multiple ending movie that questioned your moral sense. A well made thriller/horror cinematic that force you to watch in pitch black darkness and guided by sounds that tells you where to look even if you dread what you’d see. If you’re remotely interested in the Bosnian war you should totally watch this. If you aren’t you could give it a pass. If you’re a thriller/horror movie lover? What are you even doing reading a bad review before watching it?? CHECK IT OUT YOURSELVES!! 😎👍👍👍
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