Life Is a Miracle (2004)

In 1992, in a small Bosnian village, the Serbian engineer Luka Djuric (Slavko Stimac) is constructing the local railway and lives in the middle of nowhere with his beloved aspirant soccer player son Milos (Vuk Kostic) and his annoying former opera singer wife Jadranka Djuric (Vesna Trivalic). After a soccer game, Milos expects to be invited to play in the Partisan' team, but is called-up to the army. Luka can not believe that a war is beginning in his country and forces his son to join the army. Meanwhile after Milos' farewell party, Jadranka leaves Luka, traveling away with a musician. When the war reaches the area where Luka lives, Milos is captured alive by the enemy. Later, the Muslin nurse Sabaha (Natasa Solak) is abducted by the Bosnian soldiers and the lieutenant asks the lonely Luka to host her as prisoner because they would try to exchange Milos for Sabaha, who belonged to a wealthy family. As the days go by, Luka and Sabaha fall in love for each other until the day that Jadranka returns and the trade of Milos per Sabaha is accepted.The beginning of "Zivot je Cudo" is surrealistic and funny and annoying at the same time. The character Jadranka Djuric is one of the most bothersome I have ever seen, and the weird situations made me believe that this movie would be a boring comedy. However, after the departure of Milos and Jadranka, the story becomes very attractive, and when Sabaha appears the astral of the story changes to a magnificent and dramatic romance. The gorgeous actress Natasa Solak is unknown in Brazil at least for me, but I loved her performance and her beautiful character. Further, I was cheering for a happy and commercial ending, and I also appreciated the conclusion with Luka and Sabaha leaving together the blackness of the tunnel metaphorically representing the life of Luka after Sabaha's departure to her country. Another plus in this romance is that it does not focus the cruelties of this bloody war. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "A Vida É um Milagre" ("The Life is a Miracle")

Terrible... Pathetic...If anything, it is now obvious that the cursed city of Sarajevo (and its authors like Sidran) made Kusturica, once upon a time.Without the inspiration from there, he is forced to imitate himself -- as someone else pointed out. If we forget his American adventure (Arizona Dream), the decay of his movies was apparent already when "Underground" came out, but it was still bearable. "Black cat, white cat" was still watchable, though clearly worse than the rest. This one is simply pathetic.Rest In Peace, Emir of Dolly Bell...

Life is really a miracle, or rather some miracles. And one of them is to realize that at least one director, despite of the lack of ideas, capabilities, culture and courage nowadays creeping through the modern cinema background, can still shoot such wonderful masterpieces. Kusturica perfectly draws scenes and characters, plays with music and animals, skilfully weaves the plot and cover the whole lenght of the movie with something magic that only a Jugoslavian can create. This is film obviously shows also a dramatic and harsh reality, but always relieved by a light-hearted approach to life.I do not really understand how can someone assert that this movie is a copy or a repetition of previous Kusturica's ones. Should have any sense, for example, a critic to the great Kurosawa because some of his genial masterpieces are similar one another or since they deal always with samurai's stories?

Well, I saw this one today and I quite enjoyed it. It's "more of the same", no doubt about it, but, in this case, more is good. The story is pretty simple and has been explained to death, so I will refrain from telling it, but I'd like to confirm: yes, it has everything. Donkeys, railroads, the war, geese, midgets and music. The impossible love in the rough backdrop. Everything that is so dear to Kusturica appears in this film. It's not a masterpiece, it's pretty below Black Cat, White Car or Arizona Dream (his two masterpieces, IMHO), but it's an enjoyable film and one that will endure in your minds.8/10