Bure baruta

As truth can be defined by the observer, it is also guided by the artist. This film is as close to truth in film as one can get. The state of the Balkans is one which cannot be easily defined, but understood, if you understand its peoples. The truth of this film lies in the reactionary maelstrom that has been the Balkans for a very, very long time. The film ties the lives together of many, equally bizarre characters and events which are tied together artistically by a collage of madness and life on the edge of it. Please do not miss this film, and watch it several times if possible.

If you know at least something about the events that took place in former Yugoslavia during the 1990s, you should be able to understand this movie.

Many people have misinterpreted this movie as a vicious depictment of some sick Serbian mentality or an exaggerated vision of a post-war Serbia. None of this is true. The theme of "Cabaret Balkan" is not violence. A great parallel can be made between "Cabaret Balkan" and "A Clockwork Orange". The violence in both movies is not the theme - it's merely an extreme way of proving an important point.

The oppressors and the oppressed. The small fish and the big fish. The dogs and the sheep (rock fans might find interesting similarities between this movie and Pink Floyd's "Animals"). There seems to be certain hierarchy present in "Cabaret Balkan". The passive majority is constantly oppressed by the violent minority, many of whom themselves are victims of "bigger fish". The passive majority is always ready to turn a blind eye, to look the other way or, as a scene from the movie so visually illustrates, sit on a different side of the bus.

Who should the war be blamed on? Is it the government's fault? Or is the fault of the people who elected the government? Should the criminals in power take the blame or the people who let them stay in power? A key scene of the movie which takes place in the bus seems to tell us the most about this issue. "You finally stood up to me", says the young bully to the old man who refuses to play along and answer his insulting questions. In a way, the young bully on the bus is the only real hero of "Cabaret Balkan". He is the only one with the guts to stand up for his rights - everyone else would much rather look the other way, ignore the situation and mind their own business.

The original title of the movie - "Powder Keg", draws its name from an old nickname the Balkan peninsula earned at the beginning of this century - a powder keg ready to explode, with multitudes of people constantly fighting wars, making up, then fighting again. After all, isn't that what all the characters in the movie do? The strange mentality of the Balkan people cannot be easily explained, so director Paskaljevic takes it into extremes and creates extremely surreal scenes, like the one in the boxing ring and the bar. Fight. Drink. Fight. Drink. War. Peace. War. Peace. What's it going to be? Doesn't matter, as long as we're all in "good health".

"Cabaret Balkan" comes at you like fangs on a snapping Doberman with is finely tuned and well crafted display of anger. An apparent cry of despair for the current social, economic, and political state of the Balkans, an open and festering wound on the face of the world, "Cabaret Balkan" actually shows little violence and almost no gore. What is does show is nonstop rage. A "Magnolia-esque" format with numerous characters in unrelated situations in lieu of a homogenous story, "Cabaret Balkan" trades plot for purpose and substance for effect. However, its sheer drama, the power of its performances, and the superb acting by a relatively unknown cast make this film pound-for-pound and dollar-for-dollar more powerful, gripping, and compelling than anything to come out of Hollywood in recent years.

Very bleak and disturbing movie ridden with dark symbolism and utterly depressing resolutions. But what else would you expect from a film depicting a day in Belgrade on the eve of NATO's bombing campaign against Serbia. It is a great film though, but which deals with the dakrest subject matter, focusing on a society in the throws of agony, continuous degradation of the social fabric, and erosion of humanity under extreme conditions.

You can accuse it of being pretentious, self-indulging, or of trying to cover its supposed lack of substance by overwhleming use of violence, but you are living *here* in your cozy apartments, with your salaries and plentiful consumer goods while many people *there* actually experienced the life that is depicted in this movie. "Cabaret Balkan" is one gutwrenching scream of anguish and despair in the face of the harsh reality that people had to endure, and still do, judging by the latest news from Yugoslavia.

This movie impressed me a lot, however the fine details and message of this movie might very easily escape the unwary viewer. I was lucky to watch the movie with a friend from Ex-Yugoslavia who could point out what exactly lied behind every small gesture or circumstantial hints hidden in a single sentence.

The characters in this movie are in a constant dilemma, half self-inflicted, half caused by higher powers. Yugoslavia at that time is isolated - mentally, economically, morally. There is no valve to let of the steam, so the people take on themselves, murdering, plundering, threatening and raping. Almost every character is shown to be not fully guilty, but nevertheless brought down by their own acts of violence. The bus scene especially shows that the Yugoslavian people have forgotten to take their fate in their own hands. A young men is fed up with the system, his wasted life and the apathy of his people in general. The best scene in the movie for me

Tragic-comically ends this scene like the whole movie. The whole plot takes place one day before the Dayton agreement, another twist of fate, that just on this day those people lose their lives for nothing and absolutely nothing.

When you watch this movie you have to realize the deeper message has been made for the Yugoslavian audience to show them the mechanizations of their lives and their own guilt going with it. He tries to hammer this in the minds of the viewers hence the compressed plot and intermingling of scenes. A masterpiece.