The Priest's Children

A small island off the Dalmatian coast, where more people die every year than are born. Don Fabijan, a young and idealistic priest, arrives to take over the parish and is troubled by the empty cradles. When he learns that the local kiosk owner sells condoms to half the island, he has an idea: what if, with a little help from a needle, God's will could be given a push? Soon the kiosk owner and the island pharmacist are part of the plan. And at first, it works. Babies start arriving. Then the consequences start arriving too.

Vinko Brešan, one of the great names of Croatian comedy, adapted the film from a play by Mate Matišić, and it is a black comedy in the best Balkan tradition: absurd, fast and merciless. The island setting, with its stone houses, gossip and gentle sunlight, looks like a postcard, but nobody in it is innocent. Krešimir Mikić is very funny as Fabijan, a man whose good intentions keep making everything worse, and the supporting cast of islanders is a gallery of wonderful faces.

It starts as a farce and slowly turns darker, until the jokes stop being so funny and the film starts asking real questions about the Church, nationalism, sex and the power of a priest over his flock. Not everything in the second half works, but the premise is brilliant and the satire bites. It won the Audience Award in the Balkan Survey at Thessaloniki. Wicked, funny and very Croatian.