Life Is A Miracle

Star Review

Kusturica's first feature for six years is an exhilarating work whose real star is a delightfully melancholic donkey. Kusturica in fact came in for a lot of flak when Life is a Miracle was released in 2004, with many critics quick to question his contention that no one was really to blame for the Bosnian conflict and that the media was culpable of misreporting events to the detriment of the Serbs. He certainly goes out of his way to portray his fellow countrymen as peaceable rogues in this typical blend of dark provocation and absurdist realism. But the Romeo and Juliet-like romance between railway engineer Slavko Stimac and Muslim nurse Natasa Solak (which provides just one of the picture's many Shakespearean allusions) has an optimistic sweetness that in some way atones for the story's moral shortcomings. Moreover, the action is packed with glorious set-pieces, most notably the operatic intrusion of Stimac's dotty wife Vesna Trivalic upon an atmospheric floodlit football match and the madcap mayhem of the going-away party thrown for their self-centred, conscripted son, played out to the delerious Gypsy jazz of Kusturica's 'No Smoking Orchestra'.

David Parkinson on 9th August 2005
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Film Description

Set in Bosnia in 1992. Luka, a Serbian engineer from Belgrade, has installed himself in a village in the middle of nowhere with his opera singer wife and their son. Luka is preparing to build the railroad that will transform the region into a tourist's paradise. Utterly engrossed in his work and blinded by natural optimism, Luka remains deaf to the increasingly persistent rumblings of war. When the conflict erupts, Luka's life is turned inside out.

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DVD Extras

• Making-of documentary
• Emir Kusturica filmography
• Theatrical trailer.

Film Details

Cast

Slavko Stimac, Natasa Solak

Technical Details