Not the Director's best, in terms of gravitas, but it is not supposed to be. (refer Time of the Gypsies, Underground et al) It's a rollicking farce cutting swathes through celluloid in his own inimitable style and flare. The visuals are outstanding, direction masterful, acting great, soundtrack superb. It is a true cinematic artist letting rip like a child in a candy shop. The closest we have ever got to Fellini again, although Kustirica is clearly his own man. The Coen brothers are perhaps one of his few contemporaries.
With this film he returns to his one true love: the gypsies of the Balkans, Serbia to be precise, and portrays that culture through his own romantic, humanistic, and gloriously grotesque imagination. It also encapsulates the essence of Balkan humour, evident throughout his films and also to be found in the Vox Pops 'Sarajevo diaries' made by real people trapped in Sarajevo when it was under siege during the war: irreverent, slapstick, poetic, ironic, erotic and more than anything full of the vitality of life -traits he finds most concentrated in gypsy culture.
With this film he returns to his one true love: the gypsies of the Balkans, Serbia to be precise, and portrays that culture through his own romantic, humanistic, and gloriously grotesque imagination. It also encapsulates the essence of Balkan humour, evident throughout his films and also to be found in the Vox Pops 'Sarajevo diaries' made by real people trapped in Sarajevo when it was under siege during the war: irreverent, slapstick, poetic, ironic, erotic and more than anything full of the vitality of life -traits he finds most concentrated in gypsy culture.