This tragedy set in Yugoslavia is another keen human observation without being judgmental by Dušan Makavejev (WR: Mysteries of Organism, Sweet Movie). It's a simple story: Izabela, a switchboard operator and Ahmed, a sanitation inspector fall in love. The film goes back and forth with Sexologist blabbing about repressed human sexual tendencies and a murder investigation. Makavejev's use of interviews and structural playfulness that his later films are known for, are already present here. Love Affair is peppered with many intimate beautiful moments featuring lovely Iza (Eva Ras) and studious Ahmed (Slobodan Aligrudic).
Maybe it's the attractive actors and its graceful b&w photography that I find Love affair much more appealing and resonant than his later works. To me, riding the tide of the sexual revolution aside, Makavejev remains to be one of the most sex obsessed filmmakers alongside Cronenberg.
