The Road

Released Aug 30, 2019

1h 38m

Drama

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List

100%

28 Reviews

Tomatometer

73%

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Audience Score

During the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, a truck driver is tasked with transporting a mysterious load from Kosovo to Belgrade.

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Critics Consensus

The Load (Teret) sifts through the wreckage of a horrific conflict to tell the story of a man faced with impossible choices -- and their consequences.

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Robert Abele

Los Angeles Times

We not only feel the stifling turmoil of [Vlada's] conscience-stricken sense of survival but also the chilly outlook on an ashy-gray landscape from which one might think only of escape and eventually the roiling ill at a literal and figurative burden.

Oct 18, 2019

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Scott Tobias

NPR

The Load is thoughtful enough as a character study, but its true subject is the war-ravaged landscape that unfurls through the truck's windshield and the various pit stops its driver makes along the way.

Aug 29, 2019

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Glenn Kenny

New York Times

[An] atmospheric, gripping film...

Aug 29, 2019

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Paul Kanieski

KSQD Community Radio

The filmmaking style is austere, the dialog sparse, the story mostly told visually – it’s an exercise in poetic minimalism.

Jul 24, 2023

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Vladan Petkovic

Cineuropa

It is [Leon] Lučev's almost unbelievable performance that makes the execution of Glavonić's vision not only possible, but remarkably clear.

Sep 16, 2020

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John Petkovic

Cleveland Plain Dealer

A moving, impressionistic portrait of a man trying to survive chaos during wartime.

Nov 25, 2019

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dave d

Ognjen Glavonic wrote and directed the Serbian feature, 'Teret' which translates to an unfortunate English title, but does explain the premise of the movie. It's a character study of a man who is doing a job in which he isn't quite aware of exactly what he's doing. 'The Load' is trucker slang and in a war torn nation (Set in 90s Yugoslavia) jobs are hard to come by. Lucky for you it's a heck of a lot better than I described it. It's slow and there aren't a lot of words, but for whatever reason I could not look away. There isn't a lot of third act impact. Certainly walks a tightrope that it pulls off most of the way. Final Score: 7.5/10

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

𝘛𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘵 is a film, as one critic put it well, that is only context- no suspense; no actual action to drive the plot or manipulate the audience. What is happening, what Vlada is undertaking, is grasped by context. This is messy, dangerous business. Not only is there the unknown cargo, but there's the threat of what could happen if it's discovered, otherwise, why the secrecy? There's a road block of burning vehicles that's been put up. And what if he fails to reach the destination by the '9pm sharp' time he was given? All of this and a family that misses the driver is going down while real bombs are raining down upon the countryside as a 'video game war' goes down in the one-time country of Yugoslavia. From the remarkable opening scene, an austere shot of a truck riding through a barren road in the Balkan countryside as what appear like merely harmless fireworks decimate the land and its people as NATO blitzed the country. Leon Lučev is flawless really as the solemn, resigned driver. It's good to see his character soften some and open up as he takes on a passenger he had no initial desire to deal with. Behind the camera, director Glavonic is assured and skilled in re-creating the time and place of these abhorrent events. The barebones buildings, old vehicles and unpaved roads make it feel like we're watching a film set much further back than it actually is. As Christopher Llewellyn Reed of Film Festival Today put it, the film is "a testament to how the past need not always be absolute prologue, even if history so often repeats itself." 3.6 stars

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

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Audience Member

Quite boring and failed political leftist prooaganda movie. One sided story about war that tries to cash in on SJWs views.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

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Audience Member

You'll actually get bored midway

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

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colin s

awesome another portrait of the war of kosovo of 90s

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Ognjen Glavonic

Director

Leon Lucev

Vlada

Pavle Cemerikic

Actor

Tamara Krcunovic

Actor

Ivan Lucev

Actor

Igor Bencina

Actor

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The Load: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

During the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, a truck driver is tasked with transporting a mysterious load from Kosovo to Belgrade.

Director: Ognjen Glavonic
Screenwriter: Ognjen Glavonic
Distributor: Grasshopper Film
Production Co: Cinémadefacto, Non-Aligned Films, Kinorama
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Serbian
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 30, 2019, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 1, 2019
Runtime: 1h 38m

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