Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

maria-virokhovsky This movie is one of the most beautiful ones I've ever seen. Of course it helps that one of my all-time favorite actors stars in it - Emile Hirsch. This movie is heartbreaking, not a very easy watching time. I usually don't like sad movies, but this one is a must see. It stays with me. It is about so many things - a great love story, loss, ability (or inability rather) to overcome the loss. The choices that people make, how they impact their lives and the lives of others. Inescapable horrors of war, what trauma it leaves behind. This is a beautiful tribute to what happened in former Yugoslavia. But for me it's the love story that's the most appealing, played beautifully by Emile and Penelope Cruz. Not a fairy-tale love, but a mature love with all its hardships, that is nevertheless as fresh after 10 years of marriage as it was in the beginning. Really shows what real love is, when people care about each other so much, and then you can look back on some of the "loves" you've had and understand how far it was from love, actually. I can't say enough to praise this move, buy it, you will not be disappointed. Or and a music is beautiful, too, I wish I could buy the soundtrack....

kucukmrv I had a chance to watch this movie yesterday after one of my friend suggested me to watch. I have a special interest on Balkans Wars that's why I have got very excited before i watch the movie. First of all, i would like to say that this is not a movie about Balkans war. It is an illustration of how a bloody war can affect and destroy a life of human being. We saw the drama in the eyes of a woman who desperately was trying to survive. Secondly, this movie looks to the war from a very different perspective. The actors and actresses played very well. Penelope Cruz and Saadet İsil Aksoy were amazing and finally the soundtracks are so strong that you would not easily forget.

gradyharp Margaret Mazzantini's very popular novel 'Venuto Al Mundo' (English translation 'brought into the world') has been transformed into a screenplay by the author assisted by the director (her husband) Sergio Castellitto, the film in English is now called TWICE BORN. It is complex story, beautifully sculpted with interlocking flashbacks that cover a 30 year period, photographed with great skill by Gianfilippo Corticelli, and a cast that makes this carefully integrated story of varying timeframes work splendidly. Much of the film's beauty is in the complexity of the manner in which the story develops and revealing too much of that story would spoil the experience for new viewers. Very basically the story relates a mother who brings her teenage son to Sarajevo, where his father died in the Bosnian conflict years ago. But more needs to be added.Italian professor Gemma (Penélope Cruz) visits Sarajevo with her son, Pietro (Pietro Castellitto, son of the writer and director). The two of them had escaped the city sixteen years ago while the boy's father, photographer Diego (Emile Hirsch) remained behind and later died during the Bosnian War. As she tries to repair her relationship with Pietro, Gemma is forced by revelations to face loss, the cost of war and the redemptive power of love. She re-acquaints with her dear friend Gojco (Adnan Haskovic) and together they relive the horrifying experiences of the war in Sarajevo, Gemma's attempt to provide her beloved Diego with a son (she is sterile), the eventual plan to have Diego use musician gypsy-type Aska (Saadet Aksoy) as a surrogate for the couples much desired child, and the consequences that plan takes on, leading to a series of identity crises that the now older Gemma must face with her teenaged son Pietro. The story is structured on alternate scenes from the trip taken in present in Bosnia by Gemma and her son and flashbacks from the two time periods (of the first encounter and the war), a technique that at times is difficult to follow but that definitely enhances the tension of the story.The cast is extraordinary: Penelope Cruz is dazzling, Emile Hirsch gives his most sensitive performance of his career, and Adnan Haskovic, Saadet Aksoy and Luca da Filippo (as Gemma's father) are outstanding. This is a difficult film in message but a profoundly moving drama. Highly Recommended. In English, Italian, and Bosnian. Grady Harp

alberto_mangiapane I just saw "Twice Born" and I have to say that it is one of the best movies I've seen this year. The incredible thing that emerges is an extraordinary naturalness of the characters. The approach taken by Castellitto to build the love story between Gemma (Penelope Cruz) and Diego (Emile Hirsh) is absolutely brilliant and incredibly close to human being. In addition, the relationship between Gemma and Diego is always kept in the foreground; since it could easily sink in that huge and tragic reality of the war. In fact, Castellito takes great care in setting up the relationships of these characters. Otherwise the Italian director pushes his actors near the point of over-acting, I can say that especially about Emile Hirsh, who seems to over-acts in the personality of this free spirited artist, but still in a beautiful way. Penelope Cruz is simply amazing. Mazzantini's story is meticulously constructed, the shifting between past and present is well constructed and clear from the beginning. There are some beautiful scenes, the football match under the rain is a piece of absolute beauty (despite being a war), it's a reflection of two generations which belong to two different realities. I appreciated the cinematography and musics. In conclusion, I have to admit the incredible mastery of Castellitto in directing a complicated story, supported by a great cast. This movie makes me think and hope. I'm gonna watch it again.