Black Cat, White Cat

Gypsy black-marketeer Matko (Bajram Severdzan) runs afoul of cocaine-powered superthug Dadan (Srdan Todorovic) during an attempt to derail a gasoline train and is obliged to marry off his innocent son, Zare (Florijan Ajdini), to Dadan's dwarfish sister. With the aid of a benevolent crime lord, Zare turns the tables on Dadan and is reunited with his true love, the sexy Ida (Branka Katic).

The latest film from Yugoslavian director Emir Kusturica (following the remarkable Underground) is a traditional light comedy with absurd mishaps, a long wedding-party sequence, and a happy end. But it's mainly a Kusturica comedy -- a grotesque carnival of knaves, fools, and the casualties of poor dental hygiene. The mise-en-scène smashes actors into shots filled with animals and second-hand junk. A freewheeling trip through a jerry-built world where every surface has a hole for someone to fall through, Black Cat, White Cat sometimes exasperates with its frantic pace and clutter, but its high spirits and visual inspiration are ingratiating. Screens at the Copley Place Sunday, September 12 at 7:15 and 10 p.m. and Monday, September 13 at 4:45 p.m.

-- Chris Fujiwara

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Film Festival Feature Films

| The Minus Man | The Tavern | Black Eyed Dog | The Last September | A Wake in Providence | Man of the Century | Pups | Dreaming of Joseph Leeds | Wisdom of Crocodiles | That's The Way I Like It | American Beauty | Mifune | Black Cat, White Cat | Hit and Runway | All the LIttle Animals | Me Myself I | The Alchemist and the Virgin | Trash | Old Man River | The Poet and the Con | Snow Falling on Cedars | Guinevere | East is East | American Movie | Rivers of Babylon | Two Ninas | Rats | Keepers of the Frame | The Runner |

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More Boston Film Festival information, film descriptions, and show times

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