Redundant and unnecessary.

From my favorite movies..

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

But a good one anyway. Director Kusturica has already accustomed us with his caricatural way of telling stories occurring in several parts of former Yugoslavia presenting their characters as burlesque. He doesn't ridicule them, however. In fact he shows love and even some tenderness for them. He simply doesn't take life seriously and plays in a first class way with war, ethnic conflict, love and so on. But sentiment and emotion are not altogether absent of this movie. Behind the humorous scenes we can feel the depth of love that arises between the Serbian railway engineer and his supposed prisoner Muslim girl that he intends to exchange for his son who was captured by the Bosnian army during the Bosnian war of 1992. Some of the love scenes are full of humour but also of poetry and even fantasy like when their bed flies over the fields of Bosnia in some kind of dream. The first part of the movie is a quick succession of funny incidents and accidents. When the love story begins in the second part its pace is a bit more calm without losing completely its rapid rhythm. It's a movie that puts you on a happy frame of mind and don't forget the important role of the she-donkey which will make you laugh at several scenes. In the end the animal performs even an important part in the issue of the story that without its intervention would probably have a sad outcome.

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.

I happen to have (in this case) a privilege of living in Serbia. I have just seen a series "Zivot je cudo". Five 45min. episodes of Kusturica's glorious achievement. Many scenes were cut out so that the film could fit into 155min. cinema edition . . .After seeing this movie twice (once in cinema, and second time on DVD) the whole series was a major surprise.Both first, and second time movie made me laugh to tears, and then cry some again when I saw what happened later. In series, this was double. Scenes after opening the railroad when they are all on train and ruining of Luka's life begins for example, a very stress part when Luka foresees his wife's intentions with Hungarian. Filipovic's lies and promises to Luka . . . The part when Milos gets captured by Muslims . . . When Aleksic shows confidential data to Luke where Filipovic and Toma Krtolina are exposed as domestic betrayers working for several foreign agencies . . .Series opened my eyes again, and I recommend it more than film, if you are able to, see this, you won't regret it.

A typical energetic work from Emir Kusturica who allures us into his bizarre world inhabited with eccentric and weird human beings. Characters as they are exposed to us seem quite unnatural but as the movie gradually absorbs one gets used to and cares about them. Kusturica harmoniously blends comedy with drama and the result is an enjoyable and entertaining movie despite being built on a dramatic theme. The landscapes in the movie are breathtaking and an offbeat music has always been an integral part in Kusturica's works. Some elements might seem repetitive from his previous movies but I would rather infer those elements as a stamp of a genius. The only thing that almost spoils a delightful experience is an actress portraying Luca's wife. I could not swallow her annoying grimaces no matter how hard I tried. Her scenes apart, the movie is a pleasure to watch.