Twenty-one years ago, Emir Kusturica became only the fourth director to win a second Palme d’Or. His most recent work, premiered at Venice last year, and recently screened out of competition in Trieste, shows us both why he did, and why no one really cares anymore.
The Serbian director stars in On The Milky Road as a milkman, Kosta, caught up in the Bosnian War. He trudges through the trenches, delivering milk to soldiers as well as civilians, with improbable luck. Perhaps his pet falcon is keeping an eye out for him. Kosta is a talented musician, and he has caught the eye former gymnast Milena (Sloboda Mićalović) who, improbably, cartwheels around the place, preparing for their wedding. Staying with Milena is the Bride (Monica Bellucci), an Italo-Serb refugee who is preparing to marry Milena’s brother, a war hero who is about to return from the frontline, and everything seems to be slotting nicely into place when Kosta and the Bride meet and fall deeply in love. Improbably, there is also a manhunt for the Bride, led by minions of a British NATO general, who killed his wife in order to be with her, and has recently been released from prison.
The second half of the film is based on Kosta and the Bride’s improbable flight from their village. Each time they find themselves in a scrape, Kusturica provides a new, more fantastical means of escape. After a brief interlude in a lakeside hut, the flight resumes.
On The Milky Road is propelled (as is so much of Kusturica’s work) by an improbable, absurdist streak - even magical realism. This lends a certain aesthetic pleasure to the film, and indeed there are extraordinary moments (wait for the bear), but whereas in a film like Underground, these served to skewer the seriousness and brutality of the subject matter, this latest offering lacks the gravity of his earlier films. It is, to be blunt, a bit of a letdown.
That’s not to say that it is not enjoyable. The scenery is never short of spectacular, and the humour generally finds its mark. While Bellucci can be a bit stiff at times (though to be fair she is speaking Serbian), Kusturica plays Kosta well. The final set piece is as bizarre as they come. I am sure that, to a Kusturica fan, the presence of his signature style is enough to outweigh the lack of substance. To the rest of us, it’s a more balanced set of scales.
James Freeman
REVIEW: On The Milky Road
(Na mlečnom putu)