Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

in_area51 Terrible... Pathetic...If anything, it is now obvious that the cursed city of Sarajevo (and its authors like Sidran) made Kusturica, once upon a time.Without the inspiration from there, he is forced to imitate himself -- as someone else pointed out. If we forget his American adventure (Arizona Dream), the decay of his movies was apparent already when "Underground" came out, but it was still bearable. "Black cat, white cat" was still watchable, though clearly worse than the rest. This one is simply pathetic.Rest In Peace, Emir of Dolly Bell...

hjansen-3 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.

Fabrizio Life is really a miracle, or rather some miracles. And one of them is to realize that at least one director, despite of the lack of ideas, capabilities, culture and courage nowadays creeping through the modern cinema background, can still shoot such wonderful masterpieces. Kusturica perfectly draws scenes and characters, plays with music and animals, skilfully weaves the plot and cover the whole lenght of the movie with something magic that only a Jugoslavian can create. This is film obviously shows also a dramatic and harsh reality, but always relieved by a light-hearted approach to life.I do not really understand how can someone assert that this movie is a copy or a repetition of previous Kusturica's ones. Should have any sense, for example, a critic to the great Kurosawa because some of his genial masterpieces are similar one another or since they deal always with samurai's stories?

dragosiulian I think this movie won't surprise anyone who has already seen another movie by this great film-maker: it is the same place (Blakans) and style as we are used to. If you liked his other movies, you will surely like this one too.The story develops around a small bosnian village, where the lives of his inhabitants are changed by the war that shattered Bosnia 12 years ago. So far nothing extraordinary, but what makes his movies different are the atmosphere and life that springs out of every image. There are two levels at which you can perceive this movie: the first is the rational level: the story, the gags (as in all his movies, humor has a central part) and so on. The second might be called irrational, because it has to do with identification and feelings: you are taken out of your seat and are part of what happens on the screen. Drama is placed very closely to comedy, and sometimes the change is so sudden your laughs freeze on your face. This I guess is the landmark of this movie: dramatic scenes build upon, and increase their strength from, funny scenes. After all, nothing can be taken seriously in the Balkans :-)I won't say too much about the story, partly because I don't want to spoil your fun, partly because I feel it's unimportant. Suffice to say that the war is presented only by its "reflection" in peoples lives -- this is what matters most in Kusturica's view. There are no battle scenes.I think the only thing I can reproach is that once or twice I felt the gags were exaggerated, a bit unnatural. But all Kusturica's movies have a dose of fantastic, so this is not a real problem.I cannot end without pointing out the great performance of the lead actor, Slavko Stimac (Luka). All in all, I would strongly recommend this movie.