Ivko's Feast

Niš at the end of the nineteenth century. The city has recently passed to Serbia and the railway has just reached it. Ivko gives a feast at his house for his patron saint's day. The guests arrive, the table is laid, and instead of ending there the celebration runs on for days. Ivko cannot get his guests out of the house. Zdravko Šotra's Serbian film is adapted from Stevan Sremac's novel of 1895. It drew large audiences in Serbia. The humour is entirely local: the Niš accent, the etiquette of hospitality, and men who will not leave the table. The telling makes nobody the villain; the joke rests wholly on the logic of the celebration itself. The music is by Željko Joksimović.