Wonderfully offbeat film!

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

I really enjoyed watching this film. The film will be screened in Baku, Azerbaijan in November, within the framework of the traditional European Film Festival being held every year. This drama-comedy film is awesome in its storyline, actors professionalism, and the topic. I really recommend watching this film to everyone. I am sure the audience in Baku will also love it :)Good luck Vinko Bresan!

I love director Vinko Brešan - guy shows clear, true love for movies and his enthusiasm is contagious. There is a recognizable style in his movies (set in a small, isolated coastal places, with grotesque characters that are actually more realistic than you would think), quirky humor and visually they are beautiful to watch (with a loving nod towards charming French "Amélie" cartoon look). No wonder his earlier movies (" Kako je počeo rat na mom otoku" and "Maršal" got wide audience and this time with newest "Svećenikova djeca" he actually perfected this approach and made his best movie so far. It is a cute little satire about condom piercing Catholic priest who secretly join forces with newsagent and pharmacist in effort to raise dwindling island population with some hilarious, unexpected results. Characters are sweetly weird as they should be and Brešan effortlessly makes them immensely likable - if some typical local humor seems too simple for international audience (as some critics pointed, mainly nitpicking Croatians) just think about all those wonderful Czech or Spanish comedies ("La Belle Epoque") whose charm was recognized in spite - and because - this factor. For once, Croatian audience actually invaded cinemas and it was huge commercial success (even showed on international Film festivals) with predictable damnation from Church side that apparently nobody took seriously because movie became highest grossing Croatian movie ever. Bravo Vinko Brešan.

Before watching this, I'd encountered mixed reviews for the movie, from raves, through "meh, it's was OK", to "absolute sh*t". Now... my opinion in the end is somewhere between the last two categories, and I'll explain why shortly...Someone mentions "authentic acting"... Oh really? Yeah, I guess it might pass as authentic to someone without ANY knowledge of the setting it's supposed to be in. Almost NONE of the actors make any attempt at sounding like any Croatian islander -> to someone from someone from another part of Croatia, to whom everyone in Dalmatia, despite its obvious linguistic variety and abundance of dialects, "sounds the same", yeah, it would be OK as it's a mishmash of whatever the actors think sounds Dalmatian, but to someone aware of how it's supposed to sound, it ends up being as "authentic" and "genuine" as someone suddenly doing a gangsta rap in the middle of a movie set in the Victorian period, only without the comic potential. Even if he did that so that it wouldn't sound like "any island in particular", it sounds like "no island ever, possibly, with a dash of the Tower of Babel, as no two sound alike".It's a problem that has plagued the Croatian cinematography incessantly ever since, ironically, its independence, and Brešan, unfortunately IS one of the torchbearers of that notion, that echoes even today through abysmal trainwrecks like Larin Izbor... but that's a different story altogether.Even after 16 years, Brešan seems unable to deviate from his "island + simple people + a "village idiot" (this time a "generic insane woman" and not a "generic dimwit", but it boils down to the same thing) + a comedy that grows into (or in this case, degenerates) a tragedy + "everything that's funny is revealed or hinted at in the trailer, so the true laughs are rare in between" with just a dash of "aftereffects of the war" formula, while still not understanding how the islands sound and function, viewing them from an almost colonialist perspective. Clichés are thrown around early on to establish an "atmosphere" and the main character, the likable Mikić is one the rare few whose acting might feel right or genuine, as he's not really supposed to be from the village, established to be an outsider of sorts...There is some good humor in here, however, ranging from subtle background stuff, body humor, to almost obvious gags (that don't aaallways work) and it almost seems like he'd thrive in an all-out farce, and that makes the "tragedy" bits all the more banal. They feel tacked on, forced, thrown in with no grace, just to drive in a point.The movie pokes fun and/or attacks a lot of aspects the Catholic church and clergy, in Croatia or in general, while not really religion itself, on many fronts, with varying success. One might not say the church itself, just the corruption inside it... Some stuff works, some doesn't... Some is subtle, some isn't. The hypocritical "enemies in public but friends / identical privately" aspect of (Croatian) politics is also mocked... The efficiency of the humor and its parody value varies from viewer to viewer I guess.I just hope that Brešan tries to experiment for once and tries to put a movie in another setting. If he's trying to draw attention to the islands, and their problems, he's just doing it wrong, ignoring or not understanding their culture. Completely wrong. The sad thing is that most people won't notice. And who can blame them when they've only been served stuff like this.This could've and should've been better.PS. The geography of the place also makes no sense at first glance, at least if we assume that people can't walk over water. It just looks bad at times, with characters entering the scene from a direction they simply shouldn't come from. I could be wrong and I'll gladly edit this if it turns out that I'm mistaken.

It is not my intention to make spoilers, but I have to admit that this is probably the best movie from Croatia in years, maybe even better than Bresan's previous huge movies back from 20 years ago.He always had the subtlety which helped him mix satire, comedy and drama in a very particular way, through simplicity which eventually makes things complicated and often leading them to a true drama.The Priest's Children is highly recommendable, due to incredibly authentic acting, close to perfect directing and ... very recognizable Bresan's signature.He did touch many subjects in one move and movie, that's true, but that's nothing new when he's concerned. I don't expect the movie to hit greatly in his homeland, because people might not actually want to understand what I already mentioned, the subtlety in which he mixes the liberties any church / religion is taking, but also humans who take into their hands affairs which are ... or aren't meant to be.It is not offensive, but simple, warm, full of brisk simplicity of cutting edge humour, but at the same time, highly human, filled with everyday events and simple men's ideas of how to "help". No matter the issue.It should be watched as a movie with hundreds of messages, not as an insult to either the Church or any religion or nation.