Who of us doesn’t enjoy a pleasant holiday? The idea of escaping our day-to-day life and spending a certain amount of time basking in the sun or exploring some new location is always appealing, at least in terms of how most of us see these situations. However, for Srdjan Dragojevic, a holiday is a far more difficult concept, especially regarding those little details that make it almost unbearable. This is the starting point for Holidays in the Sun (Serbian: Atomski zdesna), in which the director attempts to tell a story that touches on many of these subjects, but as seen through the perspective of a pair of very unconventional characters, who represent a very distinct kind of archetype. The film tells the story of a group of weather-beaten, hopelessly frustrated salespeople who work for a timeshare company, and are given a challenge by their draconian manager – whoever manages to make a sale on that particular day will receive twice the amount of commission, giving them the incentive to do the best they can to reap the reward. However, what motivates them, even more, is the fact that whoever doesn’t make a sale will be immediately fired, which is an even stronger reason to do whatever they can to convince their cynical clients to invest in what is essentially nothing more than an expensive, overly-expensive scam that doesn’t give them anything other than ownership of a cramped room in a mediocre hotel in the first place. A pitch-black comedy with an unexpected amount of heart, and a sardonic sense of humour that we have almost come to expect from Eastern European cinema, Holidays in the Sun is quite an achievement, a charming and very funny satire that aims at many different class systems and emerges as an unexpectedly profound entry into a growing body of Serbian-language cinema, a country that has often struggled to find its place at the global artistic table but has steadily started to make quite an impact, as evident by this very peculiar but fascinating film.

To maintain the theme of going on vacation (which is almost entirely what this film centres around, so it is appropriate), anyone who has been on a holiday for any amount of time will likely be familiar with that feeling of having overstayed slightly too long. At some point, the relaxation begins to be overtaken by a feeling of frustration – whether it’s the boredom that comes with not having much to do, or the inevitable cabin fever that rears its head as frustration with the people you are sharing the holiday with, or simply just getting weary of feeling slightly too relaxed, which is often the case with many holidays. Now imagine this feeling, stretched over 90 minutes, and turned into a tense, bizarre and hopelessly uncomfortable dark comedy, and you begin to see the brilliance of Holidays in the Sun, which is the kind of film that provides exactly what it offers, but not without putting us through the emotional wringer in a way that is unexpectedly meaningful and very unconventional, which is exactly what the intention of this project seemed to be. Outrageously funny, the film examines the class system in a very interesting way – there are people from all walks of life present throughout this film, but it never draws the correlation between the upper class and those beneath them, in terms of showing the wretched excess of the former in comparison to a more sympathetic look at those below. Additionally, it may be about the interactions between staff and guests at a hotel, but it never resorts to the hackneyed “upstairs-downstairs” trope of showing the luxurious activities of the guests about the activities of the people hired to serve them, but ultimately seems to be more appropriately described as being abused by them. Instead, Holidays in the Sun takes a very different approach – it shines a light on the people on both sides of the economic divide who are simply trying to survive – nothing more than just finding a home for themselves where others may not see possible, both physically and psychologically. Tragedies and joys abound throughout this film, which is a far more entertaining work than many may give it credit for being, which is not something that the director allows to be taken for granted, especially in how he constructs this story.

The most important aspect of this film to remember is that this is not a project that is intended to be comfortable or all that entertaining in terms of very traditional comedies. Eastern European cinema has always been slightly more prickly and aloof, which means that the comedies are a lot darker, and the satire much more biting, which can be disquieting for those who don’t quite know what to expect from a project such as this. Where the film succeeds the most are in those areas that feel like they were drawn from a place of genuine interest in the subject matter, but where it will never admit any degree of earnestness, instead trying to distance itself from the material, almost as if to say that it finds these characters as repulsive as the rest of us. This is an interesting technique, and allows the director to make some bold statements – and he certainly does succeed, since this film is populated by some of the most genuinely unpleasant characters imaginable. Playing very similar notes to the rogue’s gallery that normally populated the works of John Waters, nearly every character in Holidays in the Sun is undeniably gross and unpleasant – we start the film seeing these individuals engaged in their unique brand of sordid, off-the-wall nastiness, and then gradually start to appreciate them more, growing to see the humanity lurking beneath them. This doesn’t preclude the film from making some strange choices, such as having the centrepiece of the story be a tragic accident, which would normally bring the real world to a screeching halt (or at least in the immediate milieu in which it took place), but instead, we find the same activities being transposed to the hospital in which the anxious relatives sit, patiently waiting to see if their child will live and die, only to be confronted by the same sales pitch that ultimately caused the accident, albeit indirectly. It is this kind of concept that keeps a film like Holidays in the Sun afloat, giving it a distinct and unmistakably dark sense of humour, which can be quite challenging for anyone not expecting something that skirts around the edges of bad taste with quite as pride as we find throughout this film.

Holiday in the Sun often conveys the intention of being the timeshare equivalent of Glengarry Glen Rose, in terms of centering on the lives of a group of salespeople who are at their wit’s end trying to make a living in a commission-based industry, showing the darker side of a professional all about sales, or rather ensuring that they reach a definitive conclusion. The term “always be closing” may have been made popular by David Mamet, but it is certainly applicable here, especially in terms of showing how desperation breeds innovation, but can also cause a rapid decline in morality, which is exactly where the film is most successful. It is not always the most concise, and it can resort to excess on one too many occasions, becoming a bit of an overly-dense satire that seems incapable of any subtlety, and where the darker humour begins to overtake the more interesting elements. However, its strengths vastly outweigh the flaws, and we find ourselves forging quite a strong connection with this film, navigating its many bizarre choices with a lot of anticipation for what is to come. It is an intentionally hideous, unsettling film – if you don’t feel that unmistakable sense of dread and discomfort, then this film hasn’t achieved what it set out to do, which was namely to present a darker, more insidious depiction of the human condition, as seen through the eyes of someone profoundly critical of these aspects. Anchored by marvellous performances, particularly from Srdjan ‘Zika’ Todorovic and Branko Djuric, whose banter represents some of the film’s best moments, and contains its most profound concepts. It’s a very strange but frequently quite compelling film, and while it never quite reaches the full apex of its abilities, it is certainly strong enough to warrant our admiration, much more than had it been too cautious with how it approaches this subject matter.