Peter Bradshaw Yugoslavian movie of the week
There’s never been a more appropriate time to see a movie set in Serbia, so run, don’t walk, to see Black Cat, White Cat. It is a pungent and gripping gangland comedy by Emir Kusturica (The Time of the Gypsies), about patriarch gypsy godfathers on the banks of the Danube, eking a magnificent living out of rubbish dumps and cement factories.
The film is comprehensively stolen by Srdan Todorovic as Dadan, the central-European wiseguy planning a scam involving a trainload of stolen oil. He’s perpetually out of his head on knock-off “Johnny Walker” and cocaine ingested from a hollowed-out crucifix, partying hard in his limo with his girls, singing along with a rap number about pit-bull terriers. He is a man for whom a party is not a party unless he is allowed to loose off his 9mm weapon in the air, just for a bit of atmosphere.
This is a funny, original and terrifically enjoyable film.