The Diary of Diana B (2019) User Reviews (13)

Bland

[confidencegame · 6/10 · 25 September 2019]

First of all, this film should be praised for bringing up a tragic event from not so distant history, which today remains somewhat forgotten due to various political influences. However, the way this picture deals with the said historical event is rather bland, in both the technical and, indeed, the story-telling sense.

There were only a few interesting shots in the entire film, mostly during the documentary parts when the surviving victims were interviewed. As far as the played parts go, interior scenes looked rather unauthentic, while exterior scenes were few and far in between, strongly suggesting the limited budget of this picture.

However, the greatest letdown of the film is undoubtedly the character development. To be precise, we did not witness any character development, not even from the main character Diana Budisavljevic. I believe she actually said the word "children" in literally every scene. All right, we get it, her kind efforts have saved the lives of many children, but that could not have been her one and only character trait. Dialogues were another disappointment. They regularly featured repetitive lines, while the conflicts were often resolved in a matter of seconds.

Incomplete

[jankoradovanovic-908-891039 · 7/10 · 1 July 2022]

Very important story about life of a woman that risked her life to save thousand of small children in Croatia during the second World War. I like the acting and filming.

The movie left me with so many questions and I would prefer if the movie was at least 30 minuttes longer.

Yes, it's not perfect but it's still great

[fofexu · 9/10 · 17 October 2019]

I can sort of see where the previous reviews are coming from but I think they are being too harsh with their grades. The author chose to approach the topic in a demure way that makes the end result a bit less flashy than you'd expect from a theatrical film. However, although the film is a bit slow and static, making it feel like it's longer than its short time span, it still deals with such an interesting and important situation that nothing could ruin it. Some people, without seeing the film, were getting triggered and accused the film of having an agenda but to me it felt like it judged the situation that was portrayed fairly. I applaud the author for making a film about a topic that is worth speaking about and feel the film deserves getting awarded and praised.

Excellent interpretation of such a complex and emotionally tense story.

[carpediem-91455 · 10/10 · 22 April 2020]

This is one of the stories that shouldn't be forgotten. The horrible terror of our human past.

This movie tells it all. It's all perfectly done. Nothing too much. Just enough.

Great movie.

[jelenapopovic-77902 · 10/10 · 29 January 2021]

Sad and real movie at the same time. The main actress did her acting good.

mixed feelings

[primoz-meze · 9/10 · 14 December 2020]

Some may not like the movie, modern day fascist especially, but story is well told, shows what Ustasa did to deserve their faith in months following 2nd WW and that many Croats were honest Catholics taking in Serb children to save them from certain death. And with the rise of fascism in the region, everyone should look what their 'idols' were doing to defenceless children!

Most Haunting Film

[m-elle-kat · 10/10 · 8 December 2021]

Hands down the most haunting/chilling film/doc I've ever seen. It was done very well and I cried my eyes out throughout it. It's not graphic but it's so so so so so so sad. They did an exquisite job in portraying the sorrow without making it graphic. The actress who played Diana did wonderful.

I expected much more

[smale0 · 5/10 · 1 March 2020]

I was surprised by the high rating of this movie. The story certainly deserves attention and there are parts that were done well, but I expected much more. Especially since I'm originally from that area.

Noble subject, average depiction

[mov13junk13 · 4/10 · 5 October 2019]

First things first, my rating is about the movie and not about the historical event itself or the people that lived through it.

The movie is half screenplay and half documentary, while the latter is somewhat educational (real filmclips from that era where interesting to watch) the screenplay itself is monotonous and boring.

And elderly women beside me in the cinema started weeping at one point at the end where real footage of malnourished dying children was shown, hence i believe the movie should have been a 100% documentary and would have worked much better as such, the documentary parts left me with more questions that the movie doesnt answer.

As a screenplay, especially since it kind of tries to mimic older movies like "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "Schindlers List" with its filmnoir-ish look just didnt work for me, its not because of the cinematography and the blackandwhite-look which was okay but due to its static style of narration so i was happy that it was only 88mins in duration.

mixed feelings

[susakfranjo · 3/10 · 19 February 2020]

1/3 movie, 1/3 historical footage and 1/3 interviews, the movie part is boring, the historical footage interesting, the interviews are just sad because these now old people grew up without their parents.

Now here is why i have mixed feelings, the interesting part is not the story that the director tries to tell about her relative back than but rather the childhood-memories of those foster-kids, now old people.

The movie ends telling the viewer that the record cards from back than where confiscated and never found. After the movie was in theaters another historical researcher went to the croatian state archive and found them immediately. Now i cant even tell if those old people and their sad childhood story have just been taken advantage of for this movie project or not.

My rating of 3 stars therefore is only for the interviews of these old people and theire sad childhood-story since i cant rely on the credibility of the research done for the rest of the movie. :-(

It's too bad a movie. I'm so sorry. 2/10

[felefelebit · 2/10 · 1 May 2020]

Took a look few days ago. A very poorly realized important topic. A missed opportunity. It's too bad a movie. I'm so sorry. 2/10

Disappointment

[gordan_zg-976-614319 · 1/10 · 22 April 2020]

Even this movie have a lot in common with Schindler list regarding theme making of it was unprofessional and really bad. Using black and white technic was expected for main story but present day scene need to stand out somehow. From mine point of view only valuable thing in this movie was restored and i hope digitalised authentic footage from that time. If there is a luck maybe somebody one day will one shoot a movie with respect and feeling to this theme.

Not good

[nixeverknowing · 1/10 · 26 April 2022]

I am really sad to see more yugoslavian propaganda in this time and age. Whoever knows anything about croatian society and strugle in the last 100 years knows about toxic serbian propaganda perfectly covered with "yugoslavia" cover. What happened with my last review in which I have pointed out all lies in this movie?