Black Cat, White Cat aka Crna Macka, Beli Macor, written by Gordan Mihic, directed by Emir Kusturica - Nine out of 10

Black Cat, White Cat aka Crna Macka, Beli Macor, written by Gordan Mihic, directed by Emir Kusturica

Nine out of 10

This could well be the best flamboyant, surrealist, otherworldly comedy, which is counterintuitively so realistic, rooted in reality, using facts, real life imagery so much as to be fitted for news.

Those who had the chance to experience the eccentricities, sometimes excesses, poverty, enthusiasm, joie de vivre, lack of education – on account of centuries of oppression and discrimination similar to some extent to that of the slaves – and they had been enslaved for long periods – of the gipsy or Rroma community – the name itself is disputed, there is a tendency to avoid “gipsy” but then some of the minority leaders say that should be still used.

I live in a gated community, with better off families, but across the fence we have the minority who used to lodge and still does in the vicinity and therefore I have the chance to hear their music – manele – experience some of the adventure – often unhappy – that goes with it – they tend to keep animals that are hard to tolerate, especially given that we live in the capital city – for long periods there used to be pigs and they slaughtered them a few meters away, with all the excruciating noises made by the pain of death, the smells and the horror associated.

Now it is goats and lambs, which also cry for they are kept in inhumane conditions – this is not complaining or painting a racist, discriminatory picture – I have stated above that all of this is the heritage of our white ancestors who have kept the community in literal and educational darkness and they still suffer from the fact that they are kept at the edge of society – indeed, the families that are settled near here are under pressure to move again, for the area is becoming fashionable and expensive constructions are raised around them.

Besides, on one side of the wall – separating in a trumpian way the rich from the destitute – we have families which live three in twelve rooms – we do – and they have more than fifteen – it is hard to understand the flux of people, especially since they converted to the Jehovah’s Witnesses or some such faith – on the other side of the barricade, occupying the space for three rooms, with tin foil, and the decorum we see in White Cat, Black Cat.

In other words, it is fascinating for someone who has had the chance to see the reality how well it was transferred to the screen, where scenes of apparent – and real so to say – surrealism are something you can see if you travel enough – or come to our home and climb the stairs all the way to the attic, for a panoramic view – the fence is not so high, from the second floor we can see the drying lingerie on display in the open, the outhouse was next to our street, but they did not bother to get in most often, so they would urinate in plain view and the atmosphere of the film is there…without the grenades, expect for festivities when the noise is louder.

A pig is eating out a…car, in Black Cat, White Cat and seems preposterous, only it is not – granted, that model was a Trabant, an East German make that used something which I think was called plasticized carton, anyway, a feeble material which the animal would surely attempt to use for food on multiple waste grounds around the East, not just in former Yugoslavia, where the plot is situated.

The trade with the passing ships, on the Danube also seems to be farfetched, but it is not – we lived in economies where shortages were the order of the day, in fact, Yugoslavia under Tito was something of a paradise for those living in Romania, who tried to defect using that country – Hawaii, a film reviewed here - http://notesaboutfilms.blogspot.com/, tells exactly the story of those who went to extremes to cross the river, with a hot air balloon, no less.

The characters of this excellent film are remarkable, extravagant, most often excessive, but this needs to be repeated – they have been forced by centuries of discrimination and abuse to live with trauma, adversity and they have learned carpe diem, the need to enjoy whatever they can have with maximum intensity, “vivre a fond” and there is a febrile manner of approach, perhaps an understandable carelessness, maybe even a need to payback the majority that has kept - and still does keep - them at the corners of society.

Matko, Zare, Dadan, Ida are amusing, captivating to watch and engage in some preposterous acts – shooting with a gun random targets on the Danube, juggling with grenades, trying to steal a train, planning a wedding as a payback of debt which was the result of a scam in the first place, putting the grandfather on ice, when he dies just before the marital ceremony, to avoid having to postpone and cancel it, having the courtyard filled with some of the newest technology – restricted access to the mansion, with walkie- talkies, before the age of the mobile phone – and all kinds of animals at the same time – geese, peacocks and others.

The motion picture is also a valid, extraordinary satire of society behind the Iron Curtain – and in all other systems with the same background – where corruption was – and in many cases it still is – we have here a sort of Supreme Leader with a conviction, a cleptocrat that would not give power even when this leads to the destruction of norms, he would rather pass laws that make theft legal that retire – endemic and crooks and robbers could bribe and steal in cahoots with the official.

This is the instance when a whole train is missing, Dadan pretends to make a deal with Matko, only to drug and render him unconscious and then arrive at the scene, in his ridiculous long, white limousine to claim he has lost on this deal, for the loot is gone and all there is left is a dead guy, whose corpse is hanging from a post and the desperate accomplice, who would have to pay the investment and would realize only later the trap he had fallen into.

The comedy has fascinating scenes and another one has a celebrity who can extract nails with her anus, even when the nail has been well inserted into a seemingly impossible location, and all this is done with music and fanfare, betting takes place on the side, for most are sure they will win big, for there is no way to perform this feat and Dadan takes this opportunity to present the marriage plan to his ex-partner…