gavin6942 Tito's break-up with Stalin in 1948 marked the beginning of not only confusing, but also very dangerous years for many hard-core Yugoslav communists. A careless remark about the newspaper cartoon is enough for Mesha to join many arrested unfortunates. His family is now forced to cope with the situation and wait for his release from prison. The story is told from the perspective of Malik, his young son who believes the mother's story about father being "away on business".Now, the director (whose name I won't write because I fear I'll butcher it) is a great artist, and quite possibly the greatest storyteller out of Yugoslavia. Indeed, we do not think of them having a film industry and yet he has made many great works.But this is not my favorite. I love when he digs his toes into the surreal, and this film fails on that count. There is still a dash of humor here and there, but the film still runs a little too long and is too serious. Subject matter like this probably should be serious, but if his other work is any indication, it has a greater impact when it is not.

MartinHafer I was so happy to find this film, as movies about life behind the Iron Curtain are very few and far between here in the US. It was a very interesting slice of life in the former Yugoslavia and featured the story of a man who was sent away for "anti-Communist" remarks. The poor sap, it seems, made a very innocent and harmless comment and because of this he was sent away from his loving family for a couple years for re-education and forced labor. All of this was very interesting. The problem for me was that although you felt for his family, you had a hard time caring for the man because beneath it all he was a major jerk who spent much of the movie being repeatedly unfaithful to his very loving wife. This, unfortunately, served to really blunt the impact of the film. While it COULD be said this humanized the story and made it more complex, I really felt disappointed by this plot choice.

writers_reign This could well be subtitled What Did You Do In The Peace, Daddy, given that a major element is the tomcatting of Malik's old man about five or six years prior to the conflict or, to put it another way, when that country between Italy and Greece was still called Yugoslavia. The film works on many levels but unfortunately several are unaccessible by those without an excellent working knowledge of the Balkan situation. But not to worry because we're still left with a rich storyline involving seduction, corruption, family squabbles, incarceration and one of Kusturica's specialities a set-piece wedding. Acting honors are divided equally and if the photography is only so-so what do you want, blood? Oh, you do. Well stick around. About five or six years.

Goldmine-2 I saw this film one month ago for the first time and I've been really impressed! After having seen the film, I decided to go to Croatia, because I wanted to see what Communism created in ex-Yugoslavia. This film made me curious about history and people of Ex-Yugoslavia. It has been really a lesson for me; everybody should see this movie.