Bal-Can-Can (2005) User Reviews

Everything for fatherland!

[sttanislav · 9/10 · 23 January 2007]

9/10

Ruza and her husband Trendafil Karanfilov live together with "baba Zumbula" (granny Zumbula). Even though they have names like flowers, their life is no picnic. They can hardly afford the food for a food fight. But they have even bigger problem; the war is starting in their country.

As much as they are unhappy with the war, their neighbor Dzango Sapun couldn't be more happier. Under his slogan "For fatherland everything!" Dzango tries to enroll Trendafil into the army. Trendafil is not much of a military man. So he and his wife are planning to escape to neighboring Bulgaria. During the escape baba Zumbula dies, and what's even worse her body is missing. Now, Trendafil is on the journey, trying to find the missing granny. At his side is Santino Genovese. Santino has never met Trendafil before, but he is helping in an attempt to repay his father's debt to Trendafil's father.

Movie uses stereotypes about people in neighboring Balkan countries to tell the story of their journey. And the stereotype are used in a rather funny way. My favorite was a "businessman" (war criminal) from Belgrade who goes jogging while shooting from his gun and with an orchestra behind him.

If you aren't familiar with situation in ex-Yugoslavia you are going to miss some points of the movie, but still; worth watching.

9/10

very funny in a very weird way :)

[shyes · 8/10 · 10 January 2006]

I have been wanting to see this movie for a while now and I must say I was not disappointed. I found it to be very funny in a very weird way. I love the two main characters Trendafil Karanfilov played by Vlado Jovanovski and Santino Genovese played by Adolfo Margiotta. NOt really speaking the same language as each other, it was interesting to watch them go on in the search of that carpet. I found the mutual understanding between them to be very interesting and well put despite the language barrier. Personanly I think it worked well.

I think it's well worth watching.

Cheers:)

Pretty good

[dusan-22 · 7/10 · 15 July 2009]

Pretty good, black humor style, Fellini style. Well composed portrait on one nation that was called Yugoslav the last time of its existence. Very well depicted characters of the regions on last 20 years of history but also much behind. Their path of national tragedy and destiny, rather than political. Dark picture, linked more to social and psyhological profile of the people than to living standards of the region. Very convincing acting, especially of the leading role - Trendafil, but sometimes brilliant when speaking of the minor roles, like the guy who plays Prkachin in the Bosnian village. Would recommend this film and give it 7 out of 10.

Genius Allegory

[Caje_Sukarije · 10/10 · 25 January 2006]

Anyone familiar with politics and history in the Balkans, particularly in Macedonia, can have it all summed up here. It's a brilliant allegory for the state in which the Balkans exist now. For example, each character represents a different region, and the order of their deaths is significant (most obvious is the death of Ruza's Father (Marshall Tito) before Baba Zumbula (Yugoslavia)). The loss of Baba Zumbula sends Ruza (Serbia) and Trendafil (supposed parts of Macedonia under Serbian and Bulgarian jurisdiction) into a panic and a fruitless search.

These are just a few of the allegories you can find, and if you search hard enough, a picture of the Balkans will be painted for you. Although I expected this film to be funny, and it lost much of its humor (though not all... it was mainly dark and bittersweet) about halfway through, I found it to be thoroughly enjoyable. The characters have interesting chemistry and the casting is excellent. It's definitely a thinking film in the guise of a pop culture reel of a wild road trip.

See this if you get a chance!

A must-see for people interested in Balcans

[a-carrer · 10/10 · 10 November 2010]

I've just watched the movie, it leaves strong impressions. It's not the first movie about Balcans for me, but it's one of the best I've ever seen. It touches hard and delicate topics, it's one of the few movies who is mentioning Kosovo.

It is a trip through the countries of ex-Jugoslavia that have been involved in the war in the last 20 years: Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Kosovo with some other near countries as Italy and Bulgaria.

The movie follows a style that can be considered typical for ex-Yugoslavian movies: in the beginning is very funny, but it slowly starts to change into something much more serious. I think that the mixture between funny and tragic, between comedy and drama is very well done; this movie could be a masterpiece.

It gives a particular and touching view on the human disaster that happened there. The soundtrack includes beautiful Macedonian music and you can hear a lot of different languages: Serbian, Macedonian, Italian, Albanian, Russian...

I won't say anything about the final scenes, just: I HOPE IT'S NOT TRUE and it's pure fiction!!

Good start, disappointing ending

[kolo-5 · 6/10 · 14 August 2010]

I could have given an 8 for the first half hour, and an 5 for the rest of the movie. It starts well and funny, but ends in a Rambo style. There is quite a lot of laughter in this movie, but when it comes to tears, it is of bad taste. As of the two main characters, one of them, Genovese is resolved badly, you never get the real essence of this character, he seems as a self-confident guy in one moment and a villain in an other, a man of connections now, and a man unable to resolve an easy option later. His death serves the plot, but is unrealistic an unjustified. While Trendafil, the other main character, is more stable although unbelievable in his Rambo style transformation. The end, with killings, is all predictable and it changes the style of the whole movie. I guess it is for these, that the movie didn't make it in major festivals. Worth watching, anyway.

One of the best macedonian movies, sadly there are not many made

[igorgrujovski · 9/10 · 1 December 2012]

I think the movie was very funny, and it had a special allegory, for example: there was any characters that in fact represented their countries, and the main character, Trendafil, represents Macedonia, country born in wars and slavery(Trendafil was born in jail :D) and behind the character of Dzango-war profiteers, behind the albanian smugglers,dealers and slave owners, well-there is nothing hidden there- they are represented as they really are...

In the end, Trendafil overcomes his fear of war and violence and leads the children to freedom. This is highly symbolic. The whole script has nothing to do with reality, except the part about Kosovo, it is really a place of criminals smugglers, human trafficking and all sorts of violence. 80% of Europe's heroin come trough kosovo and their gangs are responsible for distribution of weapons and prostitutes through out europe...

10

[cosmin742000 · 10/10 · 22 December 2019]

I think this is the only movie everybody can like it

disappointment

[sinco · 1/10 · 26 July 2006]

I must say I am a lover of Macedonian culture, especially music and film. That is probably one of the reasons why I expected so much and got so little from this. This one turned out to be a sheer disappointment.

First of all, the script is, well...bad. The characters have zero believability and the "plot" is garbage. (Chasing a carpet with a dead granny all over Balkan countries until it is found in Kosovo may sound interesting until you actually see it. It just doesn't work.) The symbolism is either shallow or far-fetched. The acting is not so bad, but unfortunately nothing much could be done with the terrible script. Directing was not so bad either but then, there was that element of what I would call snobbery (both in the script and directing)that I absolutely detested.

Maybe this could have been a good movie, unfortunately it is not. It made me watch again the beautiful Macedonian movie "Before the Rain" just to forget this disaster as soon as possible.

Normally, I would give it 3/10, however I think the current IMDb rating is very unrealistic, so I'm giving it 1/10.