Bal Can Can

Santino and Trendafil should be two strangers. One cruises along as the owner of a sleazy strip joint and a small time crook in Rome, the latter lives in Macedonia in utter fear of his existence, locked in a life that seems to be synchronised with all sorts of national, international and natural disasters and yet their pasts decide otherwise. Delving fifty years back, we find that their fathers were blood brothers. Santino's father was emotionally indebted to Trendafil's. Upon his deathbed he bequeths this burden to Santino, to help out his blood brothers' son should the need ever arise. The year is 2001. Escaping from forced conscription in Macedonia, Trendafil and his wife Ruza set out towards a new life, but end up chasing after Ruza's dead mother, her corpse wrapped in an Oriental carpet, stolen from the roof of their getaway car. In spite of himself, Santino is dragged into this wild goose chase that will propel them across Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Kosovo. This enchanting and refreshingly amusing comedy is painted onto a serious canvas, that of the Balkan war. Through a set of encounters with gruesome and perfectly depicted characters, Darko Mitrevski parodies the war conflicts, exposing their futility, pettiness, cruelty and injustice. MW