- contains sort of spoilers, I guess -
This is a movie about how life goes on during and because of war. I totally disagree with the opinion that it is "bleak" or "too heartwarming". I feel that those who think that way, do not get it. :-] Neither do I feel any of the sides (last Balkan war '92) is portrayed as "better" than the other.
This is the one Kusturica movie that I would call not entertaining, but really providing a perspective on things. It clearly illustrates what he said in his recent interview on TV.
If you have seen a traditional war movie, well this is the real one. Where people on the opposite side are not portrayed as fiends. Where things happen as crazily as they do in life. Where a war is something that happens during people's lives, rather than instead of them. You keep waiting for the moment, where the horrors of war should start. But they don't. They remain mostly out of scene, unsaid and untold, and thus you feel reminded of them constantly.
Altogether, one of the best movies I've ever seen.