For those who have already seen other Kusturica movies, this one will clearly be seen as a further step in the evolution of a great director. Some of his trademark ingredients are there: the basic carnal pleasures of life, the tragicomic Balkan-style eating/drinking/making love, his deep dislike for war and for any type of inter-ethnic strife, his heartfelt contempt for international organisations which did not prevent the massacres in former Yugoslavia, his entirely non-PC men and women characters, his optimism. These are recurring layers of his Balkan moussaka, but perhaps more are being added, as his optimism appears now turning into a nearly messianic faith that eventually, by helping each other, things will be as good as they can (though not impossibly so, as in Hollywood...).
It is not something one might rationally believe, but it is enchanting nonetheless.
Ultimately this is a movie about human hope, unpolluted by religious nonsense. There lays its real value.
It is not something one might rationally believe, but it is enchanting nonetheless.
Ultimately this is a movie about human hope, unpolluted by religious nonsense. There lays its real value.