Black Cat, White Cat

Grga Patic, gypsy leader and trash king, and Zarije, the proud owner of a cement factory, have been best friends for years. Zarije’s son, Matko, is a waster who won’t shape up. He asks Grga for money for a deal involving paraffin on the black market and then asks Dadan Karambolo, the junkie king of the gypsy gangsters, to go along with him. On the night that the train with the paraffin arrives, Matko is beaten senseless. When he comes round, the train is nowhere to be found. Matko doesn’t realise he has been deceived by Dadan, who now also demands ‘as compensation’ that Matko’s son Zare marries Dadan’s sister. Zare is however madly in love with the stunning and impulsive barmaid Ida…With the long-awaited sequel to Kusturica’s Palm winner, the political Underground, the director returns to the world of the gypsies from Time of the Gypsies, people that Kusturica obviously loves, with all their grand emotions and inflammable temperaments. In a beautiful setting on the banks of the Danube and supported by stirring music, the film gradually works up to the hilarious wedding. The fantastical Todorovic steals the show as the manic crook Dadan, even though the rest of the largely-amateur cast are not far behind. Black Cat, White Cat is Kusturica’s funniest and certainly his most accessible film so far.