Life Is a Miracle

The Wild Emir on a quest for... what? Love? His native land? To come to terms with the past? Anyway, it is once again beautiful, and incredible, and all the emotions are accompanied by total destruction. It is probably not possible to have sex in the whole of the former Yugoslavia without several pieces of furniture, possibly a fence, or even some domestic animals getting in the way. And the shenanigans about the Montenegro Forest! (15/06/2017)

Life is a Miracle and Emil Kusturica is crazy. This two-and-a-half-hour long movie has some absolutely brutal scenes and also some moments I would like to skip. Especially the era is unbelievable. Still, it is the distinctive Balkans that at times really knocked me down. However, Black Cat, White Cat still remains unrivaled. (04/09/2013)

A donkey with manic depression, an unfinished roller coaster, a “nem tudom" Hungarian cimbalom player, hundreds of Serbs and war. All this under the supervision of Emir Kusturica in the rhythm of Balkan music. Life is a Miracle is absolutely perfect in the first half hour, riding on a wave of spontaneity and humor Black Cat, White Cat style. But then it becomes a bit more serious and has rather weird jumps in the story. I think that a longer serial version might be more consistent and therefore better, despite the length. The second and more serious problem is the rather hackneyed anti-war storyline. Others have already done it, and better. Life is a Miracle is a movie of unusually high quality. The only beef I have with it is that Kusturica made it. He can do better. ♫ Original Soundtrack score: 5/5 (30/09/2007)

The peak of Kusturica's work for me so far is Black Cat, White Cat and after watching Life is a Miracle, that won't change. Kusturica is a very talented filmmaker and Life is a Miracle confirms that. In the film are plenty of gems, excellent shots, and clever scenes, but it's all a bit cluttered, chaotic, and dragged out considering its runtime. It needed some editing and, especially in the first half, to mercilessly cut out the Balkan "folklore motifs." It's a bit Fellini or Jakubisko-like, in the style of magical realism, and sometimes it slips into slapstick. Kusturica tried to portray the Balkan Civil War somewhat fancifully, with humorous detachment and without depicting the horrors of war. In the first half, Kusturica's portrayal of a confused time in his country was completely lost due to the multitude of characters and motifs, and I even considered only giving it three stars, but the romantic storyline of the Serbian railwayman and the young Muslim girl in the second half made up for everything. With a sense of perspective, this film can be described as the story of a modern-day Romeo and Juliet with a happy ending presented grotesquely. Overall impression: 80%. (03/04/2009)

An excellent synthesis of the raggedness and musical ferocity of Black Cat, White Cat, the visual symbolism of Underground and the civilian plane of When Father Was Away on Business. Although perhaps the above may seem a little disparate, Emir Kusturica was able to make it whole with his unique sense of image and its atmosphere in a truly masterful way. Life is a Miracle thus works as well as a crazy comedy, in which people's verbal humor is associated with the irresistible visual opposite of animals, a love story, the varying theme of Romeo and Juliet, as well as a testimony to one senseless war, conceived with traditional cynicism and shaped by disturbing symbolism. It's a pity that Emir is once again carried away by his temperament and somewhat forgetting his senses, which makes the film fly too far in different directions, and it loses pace several times. Yet it is a traditionally famous authorial film with almost Fellini picturesqueness, cruelly black humor and beautiful music. I give it **** 1/2. (09/03/2005)