Life is a miracle !

Original title : Život Je Čudo (released : 14th may 2004) Working title : Hungry Heart, Love Story, When life was a miracle Language : serbian Length : 2h32 Music : Emir Kusturica and Dejan Sparavalo, played by No Smoking Orchestra Script : Ranko Bozić and Emir Kusturica (based on an idea of Gordan Mihić) Photo : Michel Amathieu Awards : Prix de l'Education Nationale at the Festival de Cannes, 2004 César (French academy award) of the best film of the European Union, 2005 Golden Globe of the best european film, 2005

What could be better for the village than a touristic railway ? And what could be worse for tourism than the war ? Busy with the construction of the railway, Luka closes the eyes on the war. He is specially worried by this donkey that blocks the train. But when his wife leaves him for a musician and Miloš, his son, is called up for the military service, his life starts to look like a battlefield.
Fightings start soon in the station and Luka realizes he's at the heart of a true battlefield. Moreover, Miloš is made prisoner. At this time he meets love in the person of Sabaha, a Muslim nurse. But Sabaha should serve as en hostage for Luka, and must be exchanged if he wants to get his son back.

>>> Watch the trailer (French version)

Casting :

• Slavko Štimac .... Luka
• Vesna Trivalić .... Jadranka
• Nataša Solak .... Sabaha
• Nikola Kojo .... Filipovic
• Mirjana Karanović .... Nada
• Aleksndar Berček .... Veljo
• Davor Janjic .... Tomo
• Stribor Kusturica .... the officer

Soundtrack :

1. In the beginning
2. Evergreen
3. Wanted man
4. Kiss the mother
5. Moldavian song
6. Vasja
7. Dying song
8. Looking for Luka
9. Ovo je muski svet
10. Fatal wounds
11. Who killed the D.J.
12. Karakaj
13. The waterfall
14. Gladno Srce
15. Looking for Sabaha
16. When life was a miracle
17. Moldavian song

The CD also contains a bonus DVD :

• two scenes of the film : "the farewell party" & "the opening of the railroad"
• the videoclip "Unza Unza Time"
• a picture gallery

If you want to buy the soundtrack : Life is a Miracle CD on Amazon.fr, Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de

DVD, VHS

• France
  • DVD zone 2, PAL (double DVD) on Amazon.fr, languages : serbian, french, subtitles : french.
  • DVD set, zone 2, PAL (with the film Arizona Dream) on Amazon.fr, languages : serbian, french, subtitles : French. Same bonus as the classic edition
• Belgium
  • DVD zone 2, PAL (double DVD), languages : french, serbian, subtitles : french, dutch
  • 4 DVD box set, zone 2, PAL on Amazon.fr also including Arizona Dream, Black Cat White Cat and Underground
• UK
  • DVD zone 2, PAL on Amazon.co.uk, languages : serbian, subtitles : english
• Germany
  • DVD zone 2, PAL on Amazon.de, languages : german, serbian, subtitles : german
• Russia
  • DVD zone 2, PAL, languages : serbian, russian, subtitles : russian

The french DVD (double DVD) :

Release : 7 february 2005
Languages : Serbian 5.1, French 5.1
Subtitles : French
Bonus :

• Making-of by Marie-Chrisine Malbert (43')
• Masterclass of Emir Kusturica at FNAC Ternes (Paris) in 2004 (45')
• DVD-Rom section containing the educationnal CD-Rom edited for the prix de l'Education Nationale (all written in French) :
  • Many documents, analysis, essays on Emir Kusturica's work written by cinema teachers, journalists or professional critics.
  • On Life is a miracle in particular, we find : scenes plan, stylistic, aesthetic, animals, scenario, music, sounds, culture, history studies and analysis, among many other.
  • a lexicon of "life is a miracle"
  • an exclusive interview of Emir Kusturica
  • video extracts of the film as well as Tender Barbarian

Anecdotes :

The shooting lasted thirteen months, from March 2002 to April 2003, without any real pause. This marathon shooting is mainly due to the unfavorable weather conditions (poor summer, rigorous winter), and to the constant rewriting of the scenario by Emir.

"To die does not hurt, says a soldier, it is living which hurts".

Shooting anecdotes by Jerome Thiault (sound engineer), collected in February 2003 :

• The first days I was a little behind, because most of the time, I work following the text, the intonations. And I was sometimes a little late. I discussed this with one of my assistants, and I realized it. I had to integrate the notion of Serb, the rhythm, the sonority of the words. I even think that I know now when it is understandable. Because there are two things : the comprehension of the word and the pronunciation. That is, about the technical part of the voice or word, I know when it is good or when it is not good. About the message, that, I do not know. I do not have enough vocabulary. But a priori, it is not a problem.
• I once was badly pissed off because I made a cut : there was somebody who spoke and the dog which barked, it was before the sequence with the bears. I said "cut !". Emir left his tent and : "Who said that ?". There I understood that no one should intervene. And then another time, I had a convocation at the hotel, but in fact Emir found that I asepticized the sound too much. It is the scene in the church, when Nada returns. He thougth there was no more density in the sound. I had done that because we heard too much the noise of the camera...
• Emir is really instinctive, quite animal, we could say there is no reflexion. And then at other moments I realize that it is hugely constructed. It is like if he was somebody who had in him two extremes and who managed to reconcile both. Sometimes, I see him, I want to tell him I love him, and sometimes I want to tell him I hate him ! But it is good, because even after a year, I still want to go back there. It's not the case with other experiences where at the end of one week I wanted to leave. It is hard but it is good...

Shooting anecdotes by Michel Amathieu (director of photography), collected in February 2003 :

• With Emir, we have a great complicity since the beginning of the film. I take that as a challenge, each time he says we will do it this way or that way, etc. I have to find out how to make it, how to carry out his ideas. I don't manage each time, but the game is to find solutions. In fact, when he says something, he knows what that implies because he has a perfect technical control.
• I have a filter which is used to raise the brown, to change environments a little, to create interesting sorts of browns. But the film will keep a normal aspect. I would like that it gives a style, without that being a coloured effect. What I search is to work on the negative at most.
• In fact, there are only few images that will need to be improved numerically : the plans with the animals (there are cables, cords, wires) ; some plans were made with blue mate - not much, it is not the largest part of film. May be five percent of the film will be improved numerically. Since the beginning, we had foreseen with Emir to make a photographic final adjustment, more traditional, rather than a digital one. He doesn't like it.

The scene of the cascade, by Slavko Štimac:

• It was really something ! We were shooting it in the mountains, about mid-October. There were hot water buckets to warm the water, but the heat flowed to the middle of the cascade, where Sabaha was. In fact, this scene recalled me a film by Sam Peckinpah in whom I played, as a child. We shot it in England. I was in a scene with James Coburn who made a dream where he ran into a lake. If I remember well, we shot it in November. Three takes were needed. Three times, he dived in the water. In November, in England ! Then I remembered it and I said to myself : "Let's go ! James was fifty-five and he succeeded, so where's the problem ? I will do it too." But I must say that it was terribly cold when this scene was shot !

Official site:

www.lifeisamiracle-themovie.com

Critics :

• Brazil. "Kusturica literally kicks our ass, he pulls out shivers, tripes, laughter and tears. His rock'n'roll barnum circus is not amusing, it is not even pleasant, it is exhausting, explosive, multicoloured, without common mesure nor possible comparison, even if you know well his love for some of his peers and fathers, Visconti first."
• Première. "Probably the softest film and the most optimistic of its author. In parallel, like all strong works, he risks, once more, to hurt the well-thinking people by systematically refusing the generally accepted ideas."
• Studio. "Here is a film which brings pleasure, which believes in love and fraternity, and which overflows of life and miracles..."
• Ciné Live. "First an extravagant fable macerated in the liquors and the hullabaloo, life is a miracle rocks then in a burlesque love-story full of poetry and softness. Excessive and exhilarated Kusturica, but great !"
• Monsieur Cinéma. "During more than two hours, Kusturica brings us into a swirl of strange situations, inhabited by a stunning music. The rhythm is difficult to follow since the characters are continuately agitated (...) Emir Kusturica sees the life lucidly, with its dramas and its worries. But also with its joys."

Posters :

France	Israel	Netherlands	Serbia & Montenegro	Serbia & Montenegro	Japon

Germany	Poland	Portugal	Russia	Russia (DVD)	Italy

Turkey	Greece (DVD)

Pictures :