Spare Parts

Emigrés and refugees are casting a longer shadow over European cinema screens - although few of these movies make it across the Channel. Taking a different tack to our own In This World, this Slovenian drama zeroes in on the people-smugglers capitalising on an economic growth area. Rudi (Kovacic) is new to the job, and impressed to find himself riding shotgun for an old boyhood hero, former Slovenian speedway champ Ludvic (Musevski), as they transport Albanians, Turks and Macedonians over the border into Italy. Not that there's anything glamorous about this way of life, or about Ludi for that matter, who is a paunchy, middle-aged divorcee, alternately sucking down cigs and beer. Rudi is soon showing unhelpful hints of a conscience, blanching as his new comrades charge €50 for a takeaway pizza, refusing to participate as they blood desperate women into prostitution. But his scruples never amount to much, and writer/director Kozole's rueful portrait of a sick country sinking into its own pollution suggests few viable alternatives. Filmed in urine yellows and greens, the film is anti-touristic, to put it mildly. You couldn't call it subtle either, but at least Kozole isn't trucking in cheap moral outrage.