Cabaret Balkan

Adapted from a play by Dejan Dukovski, Paskaljevic's freewheeling black comedy charts an eventful night in the life of various inhabitants of Belgrade following the break-up of Yugoslavia. As their paths intersect and intertwine, the Serbian writer/director explores, somewhat insistently, his fellow citizens' almost absurd and very dangerous tendency to argue, fall out, fight, hate, maim and mutilate, and make up again over a sentimental laugh. Much more tightly controlled than the work of his (reputedly detested) compatriot Kusturica, but occasionally painted in similarly broad, exuberant strokes, this is a sometimes scary, sometimes hilarious, consistently compassionate portrait of a culture in crisis.