Gritty, cynical and intensely gripping – Gjorce Stavreski delivers a powerful piece that rests on a son’s desperate devotion to battle his father’s illness that delves them both into the unforgiving underworld of Macedonia’s drug-trade.

With his father losing the fight to terminal lung-cancer and with it, his hope and mind, Vele (Blagoj Veselinov) is beginning to run out of options. His immediate dismissal of ‘phoney’ herbal medicines, topped off by the fact he cannot afford pharmacy drugs due to delayed wages, puts him in a difficult position. During a drug-raid, Vele stumbles across said drugs and stashes them away. His quick thinking results in him baking a cake from the marijuana to give his father, which immediately brings about temporary relief from the physical and mental suffering.

The direct, clean-cut wide-angled shots set the film out in concrete stages which to some may be considered as too structured, but the authentic relationships of the characters oozes through the cracks and cements the piece. There’s an indirect, visually empowering sentiment about the film – with subtle techniques such as natural light and barren locations that result in the audience focusing on the emotional storyline. Manufactured pretences are minimal, and instead displays the strength of the film’s concepts through dialogue. Straveski has commented on Italian Neorealism being a notable influence on his work (including De Sica and Rossellini) which can be spotted in subtle elements such as social order and focusing on survival over ambition. It demonstrates clearly how working-class struggles are not just traits of the past but how they transpire in modern society.

Vele and his father, Sazdo, play out the traditional strains of the kin relationship; the doomed philosophy of the dying old man attempting one final lecture about education and future planning, which his son just brushes off, determined to find a cure. Later on, hustled under the dim, rouge lights of the city, he talks with Jana after their date about the complexities of relationships between families, in which she accuses his father of influencing Vele’s introverted nature after a past tragedy. The film rests upon these small, yet hugely intense conversations which set of a chain of events that run through the plot. They are framed as emotionally charged, and pessimistic – but are instead defined and poignant.

The legalisation of cannabis for medicinal and recreational consumption is in the spotlight of the world media, as countries battle to decide its fate in each state. With the bleak financial and economic state of society, many people are turning to alternative consumptions to alleviate their emotional state. Through the film’s journey, there is a shift in Vele’s optimism – be it the hallucinogenic properties of the weed or having one last bout of hope for his father. Cinematographer Dejan Dimeski intensely documents this as the film’s colour palette flows from the drab darkness of the brutalist period; to the warmth caress of Macedonia’s highlands.

The country’s bureaucracy surrounding drug use links its to acts such as beastiality, to which the others find highly amusing but Vele is mentally submerged into this melancholy state. His own depression is a subconscious projection of the country’s social and economic struggles. Despite the bleak outlook at times; the inner determination to keep going is unsuspectingly uplifting, even as the town’s hysteria over this ‘magical’ cake with healing properties grows, drawing in unwanted attention from the disgruntled cartels. Homeopathic treatments have become a far more common option in areas such as the Balkans as a final resort and favourited in regards to traditional outlooks. The film gives a fresh depiction of disparities between Western and Eastern European attitudes towards health and welfare.

SECRET INGREDIENT exposes the rising poverty crisis within Macedonian society in a far-too common context of life and death. The concept of social reality and economic crisis, tied in with characters engaged in bleak, emotional storylines and muted aesthetic cinematography unites this simple, confiding piece.

SECRET INGREDIENT will be repeated on the 29th October at Cambridge Arts Picturehouse at 14:45pm