Cinema
Life Is Beautiful
Живот је леп
Boro Drašković · 1985
Synopsis
Sickened by the system he serves, the driver of a country train stops his convoy in the middle of the countryside. The passengers will wait in the café beside the track, run by Kruščić: Vito the accordionist, the singer Ana, Gara, some musicians, a gentleman, a high-ranking comrade. They drink, size one another up, provoke one another, and the quarrels gradually turn violent.
Context
The screenplay, written by the director and Maja Drašković, starts from a text by Aleksandar Tišma. The film was released in June 1985 and was shown in competition at Venice the same year. The cast included Rade Šerbedžija, Dragan Nikolić, Sonja Savić, Pavle Vuisić, Ljubiša Samardžić and Bata Živojinović. In 2026, the Yugoslav Film Archive awarded the director its golden seal for his body of work.
Who it is for
One hour and forty-four minutes in a single setting, with no continuous plot. It helps to accept that the film proceeds through intercut portraits and that tension takes the place of narrative.
Prizes and reception
Selected for the competition at the Venice Film Festival in 1985, and counted in 2016 among the hundred Serbian films classified as cultural property.