Goodbye, 20th Century!

Lore & Background

The film consists of three stories of extreme violence and emotional despair. The first story is set in 2019, where a man named Kuzman is sentenced to death by a nomadic tribe but cannot be killed, leading him to wander a wasteland seeking escape from eternal life. The second story, a three-minute segment set in 1900, depicts a wedding ceremony that turns violent when the newlyweds are revealed to be brother and sister. The third story takes place on New Year's Eve 1999, where a man dressed as Santa Claus returns to his apartment building during a wake, and the mourning degenerates into violence as Sid Vicious's punk rock rendition of 'My Way' plays.

Reader's Guide

Goodbye, 20th Century! had its US premiere at the 1999 Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, California, and later played at the first annual B-Movie Film Festival in Syracuse, New York, where it won awards for Best Editing and Best Set Design. It received mixed reviews upon its brief theatrical release in 1999. Dennis Harvey of Variety noted the film's uneven pacing and unclear tone but called it memorable for its idiosyncrasy. Robert Firsching of the Amazing World of Cult Movies praised it as an impressionistic howl of rage and despair portraying Balkan conflict without showing actual fighting. Conversely, Maryann Johanson of The Flick Filosopher criticized it as feeling made by precocious 13-year-old boys obsessed with incest and violence, and James Berardinelli of Reel Views complained that the directors seemed to relish making the film off-the-wall, likely frustrating audiences. The film was released on VHS in the US, and in February 2023 Vinegar Syndrome released a Blu-ray edition.

Did You Know?

• The film was Macedonia's submission to the 71st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film but did not receive a nomination.
• The third story features the Sid Vicious punk rock rendition of 'My Way'.
• Vinegar Syndrome released a Blu-ray edition of the film in February 2023.

Narrative Architecture & Thematic Core

The 1998 Macedonian science fiction film Goodbye, 20th Century!, helmed by directors Darko Mitrevski and Aleksandar Popovski, is structured as a triptych of escalating violence and emotional collapse. The opening segment transports viewers to the year 2019, a world reduced to apocalyptic rubble. There, a man called Kuzman is condemned to death by a wandering tribe, yet their gunfire inexplicably fails to kill him. Doomed to an eternity of wandering through the desolation, he eventually crosses paths with a mysterious stranger who hints at a way to end his curse. The middle chapter is a brief three-minute vignette set in 1900, framed as the very first wedding ever recorded on camera. The celebration curdles into brutality when it emerges that the bride and groom are siblings. The final story unfolds on New Year's Eve 1999, when a man in a Santa Claus costume returns to his apartment building to find a wake already underway. The grief-stricken gathering spirals into chaos, underscored by a punk rock cover of "My Way" performed by Sid Vicious. Together, these three tales weave a portrait of a civilization perpetually on the verge of self-destruction.

Festival Circuit & American Premiere

Goodbye, 20th Century! carried the weight of national representation when Macedonia entered it as its official submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Oscars ceremony. Unfortunately, the film did not advance to the shortlist of five nominees. Its American journey began at the 1999 Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, California, marking its US premiere. That same year, the film found a more enthusiastic audience at the inaugural B-Movie Film Festival in Syracuse, New York, where it took home awards for Best Editing and Best Set Design. A limited theatrical run followed later in 1999, drawing mixed critical responses. The film eventually found its way onto VHS for home viewing in the United States. Nearly two and a half decades later, in February 2023, the specialty label Vinegar Syndrome issued a Blu-ray edition, introducing the film to a new generation of collectors and cinephiles who had never had access to a quality home video release.

Critical Divisions & Interpretive Lenses

The reception of Goodbye, 20th Century! in American press split sharply along interpretive lines. Dennis Harvey of Variety acknowledged the film's uneven pacing and occasionally murky intent, yet conceded that its visual style and sheer idiosyncrasy made it unforgettable. Robert Firsching, writing for the Amazing World of Cult Movies, offered a far more sympathetic reading, framing the film as a raw, impressionistic scream of rage and despair emanating from a nation that had spent years teetering on the edge of war. In his view, the film's power lay precisely in its refusal to depict a single act of Balkan combat; instead, it conveyed the madness and horror of that conflict in a manner a conventional war movie could scarcely match. On the other end of the spectrum, Maryann Johanson of The Flick Filosopher dismissed the work as the product of precocious 13-year-old boys fixated on incest, gunfire, and gore, calling it style without substance. James Berardinelli of Reel Views similarly felt the directors were more interested in making the film as bizarre as possible, a choice that might satisfy the creators while alienating a theater audience.

Cult Status & Home Media Legacy

Goodbye, 20th Century! has carved out a distinctive niche in cult and B-movie cinema, a status cemented by its recognition at the inaugural B-Movie Film Festival in Syracuse, New York, where it earned awards for Best Editing and Best Set Design. The film's trajectory from a Macedonian national Oscar submission to a festival honoree in upstate New York underscores its appeal as a deliberately transgressive, genre-bending work. After its brief 1999 theatrical window, the film became available on VHS in the United States, a format that likely shaped its early collector following. For over two decades, that VHS tape remained the primary way American audiences could revisit the film. That changed in February 2023, when Vinegar Syndrome released a Blu-ray edition. This modern home video transfer offered viewers a fresh opportunity to experience the film's visually stylish sequences in a new format, ensuring that Mitrevski and Popovski's idiosyncratic vision would endure well beyond the analog era that first carried it to home screens.