I wasn't going to review this movie, but it seemed there weren't many 'Americans' reviewing it, so I'll go ahead.Firstly, the English subtitles are absolutely terrible and the movie, in English, suffers for that. It's a shame, because the Serbian dialogue is really clever and often hilarious, which doesn't come through in those awful subtitles. This is nothing unique: why can't Serbian movies rate decent subtitles? When I go back and talk with friends, some of whom were BPC/VRS, I never bring up this movie, although we often talk about movies, especially old Yugo productions. But this one I leave alone. The first movie about the conflict I saw, VUKOVAR, I saw in a small cinema in 1996, in Chicago, and after that one it took me literally 20 years to watch this film; I knew about it but couldn't make myself see it. And even after all that time, I could only watch it 10-15 minutes at a time; I would get too agitated and... upset, I guess, to watch longer sections. This one nails it. Not the combat scenes, which are largely very 'war movie'-style, or even some of the conceits (like the journalist), but in tone and atmosphere this movie absolutely nails it. The characters are pretty much dead on, and that sense of dread and almost, like, some malevolent presence, like an unseen evil being that can't be escaped, is what makes this movie. Yeah, many 'Serbian' Serbs do look down on Bosnian Serbs as kind of backward hicks and foreigners. One of my 'cultured' friends in the Vojvodina refers to Bosnian Serbs as, 'Those a***oles that ruined it for everyone!'. The sense of bewilderment and escalating, cascading violence that has some life all its own, and doesn't burn out but just keeps getting worse and worse and worse. "I didn't kill your mother!""Then who did!?" That sense of vile hatred and rage, man, nobody should ever feel that. Nobody. It just eats you from the inside out. It steals your identity and soul. This movie manages to capture that, and that's what makes it what it is, I think. It doesn't have any solutions or explanations, far from it, but it manages to capture the feel of the time and place. For that it's a great film. That's about it.

When I saw this film I cried so much. Wounds of the war of the former Yugoslavia were still so strong in my heart. I remembered my childhood in Sarajevo, just as the principal actors remembered their childhood.I think plot is very interesting, but pulls a little bit too much on the Serbian side, which is natural, it is after all a Serbian film. Reality was a little bit different. But still this films describes war in the former Yugoslavia well. I liked the dialog, jokes and action.Acting is excellent, I feel sorry for the actors, for I understand that they were fed only by hamburgers during the entire shoot.All in all if you are interested in the former Yugoslavia and the most stupid war in the history of the humanity, this is a film for you.

I first saw Srdan Dragojevic PRETTY VILLAGE PRETTY FLAME just over ten years ago on channel 4 and instantly thought it was the best film to feature the conflict in the former Yugoslavia . This might be down to the fact that the Serbs are shown as being both perpetrators and victims of atrocity , something the Western press wasn't to keen on saying while the conflict was going on in the early 1990s . The media reporting was rather simplistic with the Bosniaks being totally victims and the Serbs being total bad guys so it's good seeing a film from the Serb perspective , especially one where the world isn't viewed in black and white The film is told through a fractured storyline and the story cuts backwards and forwards between the characters when they were children living in a Socialist Yugoslavia , then it cuts to the war itself when they're trapped in a tunnel then forward to a short time when the survivors are lying maimed in a hospital . It might sound complicated but the story is very easy to follow . SLUMDOG MILLIONIRE also had a fractured storyline but that was extremely complex structure , maybe too complex for its own good where as here everything is easy to follow You don't need to be well informed in Yugoslav history to appreciate the film fully but it does help , especially the terms for the warring factions . Croats are now known as " Krauts " and " Ustase " ( The Croation fascist movement set up by the Nazis during the war ) , the Bosnian Muslims are now known as " Turks " while the Serbs consider themselves " Chetniks " Serbian nationalist from the second world war . Setting much of the story in a dilapidated tunnel built in the socialist era and " The Tunnel Of Brotherhood And Unity " is a metaphor for the failings of Yugoslavia falling apart . It is an ironic metaphor and the film oozes scathing irony such as a bunch of peace protesters standing outside the hospital promising the injured soldiers that " No one will lie to you again " a take on Slobodan Milisosevic infamous conversation to a Serb protester battered by Muslim police in Kosovo in 1987 that " No one will beat you again " Some people may complain that it's pro Serb but as a neutral observer it can be disputed since no one is shown as being terribly nice in a civil war . The Serbs burn down villages ( And in one brief scene another human being ) while the Muslims use a Serb rape victim as a proxy bomb . Since much of the story is told from inside the tunnel there's a feeling PRETTY VILLAGE PRETTY FLAME could have easily have worked as a stage play than a film and this is a problem I had with NO MANS LAND but this movie is still slightly more cinematic . I wouldn't claim right out that it's the best film featuring the war because SAVIOR does have a slightly more emotional and human edge to it , but PRETTY VILLAGE PRETTY FLAME is still a good anti-war film that is both subtle and ironic

This is one of the best movies of ex-Yugoslav cinematography. Not 100% understandable for people who do not know anything about a civil war in ex-Yugoslavia, but this movie is truly a work of genius. This movie can make you laugh an cry in the same time. It's a shame this movie didn't get nominees for Oscar because the country was under sanctions by USA. For every single man, this movie is must have and must see. People of USA can see in this movie what did their government do to Yugoslavia. The war started because of USA and so did many more after the Yuglosavia Civil War. Now, as you can see, USA is destroying Serbia for no reason! After Kosovo crisis we will unfortunately have one more "Pretty Villages Pretty Flame"...