But a good one anyway. Director Kusturica has already accustomed us with his caricatural way of telling stories occurring in several parts of former Yugoslavia presenting their characters as burlesque. He doesn't ridicule them, however. In fact he shows love and even some tenderness for them. He simply doesn't take life seriously and plays in a first class way with war, ethnic conflict, love and so on. But sentiment and emotion are not altogether absent of this movie. Behind the humorous scenes we can feel the depth of love that arises between the Serbian railway engineer and his supposed prisoner Muslim girl that he intends to exchange for his son who was captured by the Bosnian army during the Bosnian war of 1992. Some of the love scenes are full of humour but also of poetry and even fantasy like when their bed flies over the fields of Bosnia in some kind of dream. The first part of the movie is a quick succession of funny incidents and accidents. When the love story begins in the second part its pace is a bit more calm without losing completely its rapid rhythm. It's a movie that puts you on a happy frame of mind and don't forget the important role of the she-donkey which will make you laugh at several scenes. In the end the animal performs even an important part in the issue of the story that without its intervention would probably have a sad outcome.

After finishing watching the movie my friend said to me: do you realize that we just watched over 2 hours of video about nothing. The movie is basically escapist: showing reality in makeup and looking like whore, very much like Hollywood movies. The main character is "very good person", faithful husband and a father and cares about people (through building railroads). So how do put this man in a romantic extra-marrital affair without damaging that ultra-good view of him? Well, you make his neurotic wife run away with somebody else, and then make him get mad when the girl puts on his wifes clothing and only later give in to his feelings. Really, a true story of devotion to family values and decency (makes me sick). The whole movie is also very zany, with childish humor (like teletubbies). And to make it powerful in the end there's the whole dramatic separated lovers story. So what you get is a movie about life before and during war, where nobody dies, main character has a romance, full of slapstick humor. How's this related to anything real. I see it only as a sickening reality-obscuring movie.

I do not understand any of the languages used in the film. No sub-titling. I didn't get the full story. It still was a joy to watch because of everything being unexpected and surprising. Is the film a caricature of life? It certainly is. It pulls our legs. Shows us the mirror. I am certain that Salvador Dali and Frederico Fellini would have enjoyed this film very much. Charlie Chaplin too? I think so. For someone who does not understand the language the film may be a bit long. However, it is absolutely impossible to stop the video player. The next surprise is just around the corner. The film made me think a bit of the Dutch movie "The Pointsman" (de wisselwachter). "Life is a Miracle" has more intensity, though.

Emir Kusturica has let his warm fuzzy side have the upper hand a bit too often in this one. The title is a dead giveaway: "La vie est un miracle/Life is a Miracle" is by turns whimsical, fey and heartwarming, so much so at times that one wants to reach for the insulin. The dark moments, and there are several (this IS Kusturica and it IS set in Bosnia, after all), come to feel like set-ups for more cloying sweetness - each time something truly awful seems to happen or be about to happen to one of the characters, the director chickens out with a "just kidding" scene. Nor is the story entirely convincing. Too bad - the actors are appealing and do a good job, and the Bosnian locations are gorgeous.