Rivers of Babylon

Although not as desperate as the Yugoslavia of Cabaret Balkan, the Slovakia of Vlado Balco's Rivers of Babylon seems almost as apocalyptic. And a lot less coherent: crudely satiric and farcically surreal, the film often is too disjointed, too esoteric -- or too obvious -- to register. Tacz, a brawny boilerman and Kojak look-alike, finds that his ignorance, attitude, and venality fit in well with the period of transition from Communism to chaos. Starting with control over central heating, he seduces showgirls and bureaucrats and rises to the heights of power through ruthlessness and his ability to "touch the hearts of citizens and eat two pounds of raw meat a day." Abetted by a weasly pimp who provides the cynical, overwritten voiceover narration, the story is a kind of All the Kings Men as related by Dusan Makavejev, but these two wild and crazy guys from Bratislava offer no insight into the allure of bad leadership or the inevitability of baroque damnation. Screens at the Copley Place Wednesday, September 15 at 7:15 and 9:30 p.m. and Thursday, September 16 at 11:15 a.m. and 1:45 and 4 p.m.

-- Peter Keough

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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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