Dir. Emir Kusturica, 2004, France/Serbia-Montenegro, 156 mins
Cast: Slavko Stimac, Natasa Solak, Vesna Trivalic
Emir Kusturica, the charismatic maverick behind such vivid and absurd classics as Underground and Time of the Gypsies is currently embroiled in an exasperated dispute with the British censors. Life is a Miracle, Kusturica's fantastical, freewheeling love story set in a ramshackle rural community during the Balkans war, is being red flagged for a scene where a cat jumps on a pigeon. The fact that the pigeon was already dead before the scene was shot hasn't deterred the censors from asking the only director other than Francis Ford Coppola to have won two Palm d'Ors at Cannes from removing the scene.
Assuming that Kusturica doesn't follow through on his threat to withdraw the film from UK screens in protest, Life is a Miracle could be one of the most sumptuous and idiosyncratic films seen here this year. Based in a fictional village in Serbia in 1992, it tells the story of Luka (Slavko Stimac), a carefree and loving station manager living with his family next to a decrepit rail track. Soon, the line from Bosnia will become operative, offering commercial opportunities and a tourist trade for the small town, making its bloated mayor glow red with greedy pleasure. Luka's deranged, opera-singing wife Jadranka (played with manic gusto by Vesna Trivalicand) and his football protégé son are reluctant to stay by the tracks, but remain temporarily by Luka's side.
As the threat of war looms closer, the villagers seem unconcerned, but when the shells start falling nearer, Luka's son is drafted into the military and promptly captured by the enemy. In a bid to negotiate his release, Luka holds local Muslim girl Sabaha (Solak) hostage, but treats her with respect and affection. As the two grow inevitably closer, an unlikely and touching love story develops amongst the chaos of war. Of course, the problems come when Luka is finally faced with a tough decision between the love of his life and the emancipation of his beloved his son.
Kusturica's film is rich with absurd metaphors and strange animistic symbolism, from lovesick donkeys blocking progress on the rail track, to ravenous bears stalking the simple villagers. Yet his film doesn't serve as an overt critique of the situation in Balkans so much as a general indictment of the universal futility and stupidity of war. Figures of authority are, by and large, grotesque distortions, faces distended and gaping for love of money or success. Villagers are shown as the simple victims of forces beyond their control and brutish bullies are depicted enjoying the savagery of war.
With help from cinematographer Michel Amathieu, every frame is teeming with activity. Dreamy, fluid tracking shots swirl us through the action and every possible angle is employed to create a skewed sense of a bizarre and fractured community. Music from Kusturica's own "punk band" The No Smoking Orchestra pervades every scene, adding to the strange combination of carnival like excess and quirky menace.
This tragicomic stew of raging caricatures and tender moments is relentlessly delivered with energy and verve. However, this is also part of its downfall. At over two and half hours running time, Life is a Miracle's incessant slapstick and quirkiness occasionally gets tiresome, diluting the power of both the love story and the barbaric backdrop of war. Nonetheless it's an endlessly inventive visual feast, with wonderful riotous set pieces including a football match that degenerates into an anarchic brawl and a local celebration that descends into a semi-orgy. Kusturica's sheer vigour and seemingly boundless affection for people and their quirks is infectious, and it certainly isn't a traditional depiction of the horrors of war. A technical and imaginative tour de force, Life is a Miracle is an enchanting, if ultimately slightly disappointing film from one of the great figures of world cinema.
Paul Mallaghan |
