Black Cat, White Cat

Emir Kusturica's Black Cat, White Cat (Crna mačka, beli mačor) won the Silver Lion for Best Director at Venice in 1998. It brought Kusturica back to international acclaim after the political controversy around his Palme d'Or winner Underground (1995), and critics and audiences mostly took Black Cat, White Cat as the lighter, happier counterpart to Underground's political sprawl.

On the banks of the Danube, in a Romani village whose economy runs on smuggling, theft and improvisation, the small-time hustler Matko (Bajram Severdžan) bungles a black-market deal and ends up owing a fortune to the volatile local gangster Dadan (Srđan Todorović). To settle the debt, Matko promises his teenage son Zare (Florijan Ajdini) in marriage to Dadan's tiny but ferocious sister Afrodita (Salija Ibraimova), who has no more intention of going through with the wedding than Zare does.

What follows is a run of escalating wedding-day farce: runaway brides, fake deaths, a burning marriage tent, a goose down the chimney and a brass band that never stops playing. It is the most exuberant film Kusturica has made. Goran Bregović's score is as consistently delightful as anything in 1990s European cinema. For all its broad comedy, the film pays real attention to Romani life, and it has become a touchstone in later debates about how European film represents Romani communities.