Consequences

In the case of Andrej (Matej Zemljic), we are never overtly shown how his parents failed him.   His father (Dejan Spasic) is a docile, ghost-like presence in a household ruled by his mother’s (Rosana Hribar) iron fist.   She isn’t abusive, but she is unrelenting in her adherence to rules and structure. Whether this is a consequence of Andrej’s rebelliousness or a underlying cause is left up to interpretation.   He stays out late drinking, fraternizes with boys who teeter on the edge of criminality, and is prone to unexpected bursts of anger when he feels physically or emotionally threatened. Andrej lives on the precipice to avoid a truth he keeps deeply suppressed; his internalized homophobia is directed both inward and outward.  He spits his rage at the world.  We see him hit a girl who questions his masculinity, partake in cruel hazing rituals, and utilize violence as a method of extortion in the service of his group’s alpha dog: Zeljko (a brutally compelling hair-trigger performance by Timon Sturbej). Like Andrej, Zeljko grapples with the poison of self-hatred through rage and violence.   He swaggers and prowls in an almost grotesque parody of masculine power.   All he desires is to surround himself with acolytes he can manipulate into doing his dirty work; collecting payment (with interest) for the contraband drugs and cigarettes he provides for the other boys at the juvenile facility they’ve been relegated to. Zeljko is not above using extreme violence or blackmail to get what he wants.   He and Andrej engage in a subtle dance of power dynamics, with Zeljko still on top, but grudgingly impressed with the other boy’s strength and creativity.   This interplay slowly morphs into something else; their parries adopt a different physicality, and eventually blossoms into a full-blown sexual affair. Unlike Zeljko, at his core, Andrej hides a deep well of tenderness and empathy.   At best, he merely tolerates the people around him, but he possesses an unconditional love for his little pet rat, Fifa.   He hesitates to harass a Romani family with a child who requires constant medical attention.   And he makes the mistake of wanting his affair with Zeljko to become something more romantic. CONSEQUENCES is an extremely respectable first film.   Director Darko Stante shows an excellent instinct for capturing pure, mercurial emotion.   Narratively, the film feels obliquely similar to THE FLORIDA PROJECT: with each passing scene, your frustration ratchets up as you see bad-to-worse decisions leading the protagonist down a road they might not be able to return from.   You want to scream at them to stop, but they constrained by an inertial force leading them to an inevitable conclusion. The microcosm of the juvenile center that Stante shows us is a twisted product of toxic masculinity, from the boys’ use of violence to intimidate and subordinate, to the cowed, ineffectual staff.   It’s therefore understandable that CONSEQUENCES’ female figures recede into the background, but I would have liked to know more about the motivations and inner lives of both Andrej’s mother, and Svetlana (Lea Cok), Zeljko’s girlfriend.  How do their attitudes and behaviors effect the men in their lives, even indirectly? Matej Zemljic is simply phenomenal as Andrej.  He punctuates his performance with such unexpected tenderness that it makes the violence that much more startling, even though it is an ever-present facet of his life.  CONSEQUENCES meditates on the slow-acting poison of self-hatred without ever making it feel mundane.