Of Cats, Casablanca, Love and Marriage! (The Gypsies Strike Back!)

The other day, I watched this movie entitled "Crna Macka, Beli Macor" (Black Cat, White Cat) by Emir Kusturica. I didn't intend to watch this movie; what I was interested was in a DVD set of the "Trois Couleurs" (Three Colours) by Krzysztof Kieslowski, because for almost a decade now I know that he was a great moviemaker. But since my colleague, who promised me the movies, could not locate the DVDs, she lent me "Dom za vesanje" (Time of the Gypsies) and "Black Cat, White Cat" by Kusturica instead. To be honest, I never even heard of Emir Kusturica until then, and I was bit apprehensive about his movies. But due to the general belief that Eastern European movies are in general good, I first watched "Time of the Gypsies", and (since I liked it) and then went for "Black Cat, White Cat".

I must now confess that it was a hillarious and vibrant movie. Though there was no English subtitle for the movie, and I could not even guess most of the things they said, I could just enjoy the visual, and that was enough for good laugh. Now, this is not a serious movie, or even believable, but a really colourful depiction of the Gypsy life by the river Danube.

In addition to a pair of omnipresent cats, a naive conman whom some Russian smugglers sell water instead of fuel, a war criminal-and-mafia boss who snorts cocaine that's hidden in his crucifix, a patriarch Don who watches only the last 10 seconds of "Casablanca" again and again (and then repeats the last dialogue from the movie) seated in a chair that can roll and is equipped with a fan and a TV set, and a pig that eats away a car.

In addition to a sub-plot that revolves around a failed train hijack, this movie also contains a tall, lanky Mafioso who waits for his "true love", a young couple in love, two arranged marriages, couple of killings and some shootings. It also covers a sex scene betwen the two cats, the most natural of all actors, and ends in the wedding of the lovelorn couple in a boat, where the priest holds the two cats behind their ears to make them immobile, so that they could act as the witnesses.

What more can one ask for?