They commit several burglaries to fund their future journey, including one of a local Orthodox church. Under Paris' influence, Marko begins to drink, smoke, and steal. Paris becomes Marko's new mentor, teaching the boy to fend for himself: 'Eat or be eaten.' He promises to take Marko away from his hometown in the future. Coincidentally, his name turns out to be Paris, the city of Marko's hopes. He plays chess with Marko, replacing a missing pawn with a bullet. Meanwhile, a scarred soldier ( Nikola Djuricko) has taken up residence in the train graveyard. Furthermore, Fanny begins an affair with a black Kosovo Force soldier, providing Marko's racist bullies with more fuel.

He flees when he witnesses Levi's gang beating up Marko outside his own apartment, and his attempts to banish Levi from his classes fail because of Blashko's intervention. Although a kind man, his teacher offers little help. However, Marko's efforts gain only indifference from his family and mockery from school bullies. He fills Marko with hopes of escaping his hometown through literary achievement to Paris, the 'city of art'. He encourages Marko to take part in a French-sponsored poetry contest whose winners will represent Macedonia in Paris, as well as to recite his entry during their school's upcoming Independence Day celebrations. A Bosnian teacher of Macedonian ( Mustafa Nadarevic) becomes Marko's mentor. To escape his troubles, Marko often takes refuge in a local train graveyard, playing chess to pass time.Ī sensitive boy, Marko has a talent for composing poetry a character half-jokingly refers to him as ' Kočo Racin II'. At school, Marko suffers torment from bullies led by Levi (Martin Jovchevski), son of the Albanian police chief Blashko ( Dejan Acimovic). They consist of his father Lazo ( Vlado Jovanovski), a drunkard addicted to bingo and involved in a workers' strike his cowed, unsupportive mother Angja (Elena Mosevska) and his promiscuous, abusive sister Fanny (Slavica Manaskova). Living in a run-down house beside a railway track, he suffers neglect from his family. The film opens with Marko's difficult circumstances. The illusory nature of these hopes is foreshadowed by the film's epigraph, an aphorism from Friedrich Nietzsche's Human, All Too Human: 'Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of man.' Two mentors offer Marko hopes of a better future, but they eventually fail him, leading to his catastrophic change. It tells the story of 13-year-old Marko Trifunovski (Marko Kovacevic), a talented but abused Macedonian schoolboy whose harsh circumstances gradually transform him into a criminal. The film takes place in Veles during the Republic of Macedonia's post-independence years. It won Best Feature Film during the 2005 Anchorage International Film Festival and was nominated for the Tokyo Grand Prix during the 2004 Tokyo International Film Festival. Following its release in Canada and the United States, it was well-received by most critics, who have generally praised the film for its uncompromising realism and lead actor's performance. Mirage was Ristovski's feature debut as a director. It offers a grim depiction of post-independence Macedonia, portraying it as a site of violence and corruption. Taking place in the city of Veles, the film is a coming-of-age story about a talented but abused schoolboy who is betrayed by illusory hopes of a better future and transformed by harsh circumstances into a criminal. It was directed by Svetozar Ristovski, who co-wrote the film with Grace Lea Troje. Mirage ( Macedonian: Илузија transliterated Iluzija) is a 2004 Macedonian drama film starring Vlado Jovanovski, Mustafa Nadarević, Nikola Đuričko, and Dejan Aćimović, with Marko Kovačević debuting in its lead role.

Mirage movie