Cirkus Columbia

Belgium, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina

2010

113 Min

Color

2.35:1

Bosnian

Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
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PROD Čedomir Kolar, Cat Villiers, Dunja Klemenc, Gerhard Meixner, Roman Paul, Marion Hänsel

SCR Danis Tanović, Ivica Djikic

CAST Miki Manojlović, Boris Ler, Mira Furlan, Jelena Stupljanin, Mario Knezovic, Milan Strljic, Svetislav Goncic, Almir Mehic, Ermin Bravo, Mirza Tanovic

PROD DES Dusko Milavec, Sanda Popovac

Toronto (Special Presentations), Venice (Venice Days), Abu Dhabi (Narrative Competition), São Paulo (International Perspective), Rotterdam (Spectrum), Göteborg (Mästare), Mill Valley (World Cinema), Chicago (World Cinema)

After years of communist rule, things seem to have settled down in the small town in southern Herzegovina where Lucija and her son Martin live a quiet life. That is until Divko, Lucija’s estranged husband of twenty years, rolls into town with a slick Mercedes, a sexy young girlfriend, loads of cash and a mangy, black cat named Bonny. Having once fled to Germany, Divko is back and looking to settle some scores in this satirical battle of the sexes.

His first order of business is to pay the local police to throw his ex-wife and teenaged son out of their home. Never one to back down, Lucija proceeds to dump buckets of scalding water onto the heads of the bumbling policemen and with that, a whole new conflict in the Balkans is unleashed. Although Divko’s tactic of throwing money at every problem seems to succeed at first, his luck soon takes a turn for the worse when his beloved Bonny goes missing, his girlfriend’s eyes start to wander and rumblings of war reach the small town. Divko, Lucija and Martin must decide what matters most: pride or survival. —TIFF

Danis Tanović

Danis Tanović was born in 1969 in Zenica, former Yugoslavia, today Bosnia & Herzegovina. After a diploma in civil engineering, he studied piano at the Academy of Theatre Arts and film at the Sarajevo Film Academy and then spent two years on the frontline filming for the army. In 1994 Tanović emigrated to Belgium to continue his film studies. He has directed No Man’s Land (2001) – Best Foreign Language film at the Academy Awards, Hell (2005) and Triage (2009). Cirkus Columbia has been selected as the Bosnian entry for Best Foreign Language film at the Academy Awards 2011. —Göteborg International Film Festival

msmichel

17Apr12

Tanovic returns to his homeland to adapt this story taking place at the break of the war and creates his finest film since his debut 'No Man's Land'. Casting is pitch perfect here with Manojlovic especially standing out as a man returned to his home country to pick up where he left off 20 years previous oblivious to the fact he couldn't have come back at a worst time.