Cabaret Balkan

There are so few movies out there of this caliber. Though certainly a visceral movie, there is a feeling of connectedness with the characters that (though somewhat negated by the foreign language) makes this more than just an intense viewing. Sure, at the end, I breathed a sigh of relief and let go of the knot in my stomach, but the best part of this movie is its study of human nature on the edge. What makes this movie so awful to watch is not that the characters can be so evil, but that you know that they aren't inherently so. Please go see this movie now.

A great movie. Someone should surely dislike it, but surely it will be impressed in your head and heart like the explosion of millions of bombs...a bang in my heart, absolutely stupend and upsetting...the bombs are inside of everyone, ready to explode and destroy your minds and bodies.

"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.

Goran Paskaljevic outdoes himself with this dark, satiric drama-comedy. What he gives us here is Serbia in a nutshell, a post-war Serbia torn with crime, anger and mistrust. "Who's to blame?" is the central question here and the line is spoken several times throughout the movie, once in a particularly hilarious scene. The bus scene is the one that illustrates the situation Serbia and most of former Yugoslavia are in-chaos. There is no one behind the wheel, so everybody is trying to take control.

There is no way to write about this film without saying something about the cast. It consists of all the finest Serbian and Yugoslav actors (two of them, Trifunovic and Glogovac, are from Herzegovina originally and two are from Macedonia) and it is one of the cases where the entire cast is the protagonist. Particularly fine performances come from Miki Manojlovic, Mirjana Jokovic, Mirjana Karanovic, Voja Brajovic, Aleksandar Bercek, Nebojsa Glogovac and Lazar Ristovski. The storyline is incredibly well built and all stories and characters are equally good.

This is a flawless, high quality tragicomedy which will provide you great entertainment and watching experience, as well as a good insight into the situation of this country. It is a humanistic and poignant film with a message, a cry for help. Balkan-a barrell of gunpowder, a-hole of the world.

In one night the 1990s, in Beograd, many violent acts happen almost simultaneously, having as a `touching point' linking all of them the presence of a cab driver. A car crash, a vengeance against a former policeman, a harsh dialog between two boxers friends, a paranoid man in a bus, the anger of a lover against the former passion of his mate, the jealousy of a boy friend, all of these feelings are the motive for an outburst of violence from locals. The Brazilian title (`Powder Keg') metaphorically defines the state-of-mind of the civilian population, ready to explode in a city without law in times of war. I liked the screenplay, the direction and performance of the cast of this low budget movie. However, living in Rio de Janeiro, this black humor theme does not surprise me. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): `Barril de Pólvora' (`Powder Keg')