Black Cat, White Cat DVD, 1998

The first time I saw Emir Kusturica’s Black Cat, White Cat was with Swedish subtitles. Only picking up the odd word, I still left the film in an intoxicated state, humming a europop ditty that went something like “pit-bull - terrier…rashaman”. Watching the film again with English subtitles the delirious effect is not diluted.
After a train robbery turns sour, small-time gangster Matko must repay a debt to the cocaine-snorting, gun-wielding Dadan through the marriage of his son to Dadan’s daughter. The couple are not best pleased and plan to elope with their actual loves while Matko plots a humiliating prank for Dadan. The story then snowballs out of control, gathering a plethora of circus-like characters, romantic subplots and outrageous slapstick, all near the picturesque banks of the River Danube. Kusturica’s boundless energy courses through the veins of this madcap comedy and the action careers recklessly along to the relentless accordion music of his ever-present band of gypsies. The result is like being the only sober guest at the craziest wedding imaginable, an exhilarating and exhausting feeling of confusion and joy.
All together - "pit-bull terrier…rashaman!"

Steve Turner on 1st May 2006
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