Best Yugoslavian film ever made. Brilliantly simple but then again extreamley interesting piece of pure genius!

As others wrote: this movie is a must if you go to the Balkans. Although I am not sure whether you can acquire the sense of sarcasm needed to understand the communication of people in the region. Unfortunately, today's movie standards are too focused on action and excitement that could explain why this movie faded out from cinema. I truly appreciate that the movie is simple and does not involve unnecessary motives. The good example is the two gypsy singers: their songs deliver very little new information but as they keep reappearing, their strange performance gets a higher-level meaning that burns into the viewer's memory.

I watched this movie, because it was in the top ten comedies of IMDb. It took me into a world that is absolutely alien to me. So maybe you have to be from Serbia to fully enjoy it. Overall I liked the movie. The story was well paced, the characters convincing and the actors were great. Nevertheless, from the ratings I expected a little bit more. So maybe my expectations were too high. The story is full of twists and ideas that are on the brink of being funny. But I didn't get quite into it. Maybe because I felt more like an outsider than an insider. The film is well worth a watch, but to me it is not the master piece that I expected.

This "tragicomedy" written by famous Serbian theatre/film writer Dusan Kovacevic is probably one of the best movies ever made in the comedy category. And yet, its appearance of a theatre play transformed into a feature film takes nothing of its value. A masterpiece one should not miss to see (preferably with subtitles, and not dubbed).In an aged bus en route to capital Belgrade, a looming war decides the passengers' behaviour. Two Gypsy musicians sing of their miserable life but also foresee a tragedy to come; their singing both divides and connects stages in this extraordinary road movie (real life Kostic brothers are amateur actors, but together with Stanojlo Milinkovic as farmer who's plowed the road give a real-life performance).The spectrum of characters gives a brilliant image of a society facing a war, an insight into nation's collective person: everyone is aware that war is just about to begin but they try to live their own lives the best they can, hoping that ignorance might avert the tragedy. Using a simple movie language, director Slobodan Sijan paints a picture of society torn by previous war (World War I), but also highlights personal portraits with success: provincialism of a singer, inexperience of the newlyweds, seriousness of the Great War veteran who is on way to visit his recently conscripted son, and gloomy predictions from a man who seems to be a German spy.Brilliant in its narration, with memorable soundtrack (especialy the Gispsy songs) and adjusted atmosphere, well photographed and edited, this feature (Sijan's feature debut) was only an introduction into a series of the directors bitter-sweet comedies that will define Serbian cinematography of the 1980s: "Maratonci trce pocasni krug", "Kako sam sistematski unisten od idiota", and my other director's favourite "Davitelj protiv davitelja").