Energy, intensity, and dark humour

Rating: 10/10 (9 July 2018)

I was completely amazed by the energy and ambiguity of this film. It manages to be extremely funny, disturbing and depressing at the same time. Backy and Marko, two guys fighting to support the Communism against the Nazism, are living their lives intensely. They steal, they drink, they fight and they are frequent costumers at brothels. It seems that the reason why they are bravely fighting against the Germans is lass because of ideology and more because they want to see some action, and they are only by chance fighting on the Communist side. On the first part of the film, named War, the Germans are attacking Yugoslav, and after having the city bombed, the citizens find shelter underground. The second part, named Cold War, takes place 20 years after the first incident. Because both Backy and Marko fall in love for the same woman, in order to marry her, Marko makes Backy and all the people living underground believe that the war is not over, and that they should stay underground and trust Marko to bring information and food. Finally, the third part, named Civil War, portrays the civil wars in Yugoslav and the effects of the decisions made by the characters on the first and second parts. The first and second parts are marked by the presence of an orchestra playing in almost all shots. It gives a hallucinating and dynamic rhythm for the scenes. All the characters are well constructed and have strong and intense personalities - sometimes it feels as if all of them are on the verge of craziness. The use of dark humour to deal with such a heavy theme as war produces intense effects on the audience - at the same time you can't avoid laughing, you feel guilty for laughing at such a sad theme. Emir Kusturica was heavily criticized for providing an unfaithful portrait of the war. However, his aim was not to portray the war faithfully, but to give his own interpretation of the war. It seems that the critics who rely on this point are not aware that it is intended to be a work of art, and not a documentary.