Benvenuto Mr. President

This bittersweet comedy is set in a tiny, rustic village where Serbs and Muslims still carry memories of war, where arms caches continue to be uncovered and an uneasy peace reigns.

The town has a mayor, but a gangster and a cop really rule the roost. Cocky, lank-haired operator Velija owns the local brothel - controlling imported girls by confiscating their passports - and illegally runs Kurdish and Chinese people into Croatia for a tidy profit. The local chief of police provides Velija's business with protection in return for a healthy cut. International inspectors are trying to re-educate - and foster harmony among - the local fire brigade of Serbs and Muslims; things work after a fashion, but hatreds run deep - returning Serbs are shunned and verbal abuse is commonplace.

Everything changes, though, with the announcement that Bill Clinton will be visiting their village in the next few days. Crime has to be swept under the carpet and a false, but clean, facade must be erected.

With its wonderful mix of gently farcical elements reminiscent of so many great Yugoslav films of previous eras (Milos Forman's The Firemen's Ball also comes to mind), Zalica's portrait of post-war Bosnia is loving, but brutally honest. His ironic eye poignantly registers tragedy all around - most notably in the moving portrait of the former police chief, Zaim, who mourns the adult son he lost in the war. When Zaim digs his gun out of the garden and sets off to settle scores on the eve of the President's visit, drama is imminent.

Fuse is a remarkable work about a catastrophic legacy, told with humour and an unerring sense of the irrational, very real tragedy of the Bosnian war.

I don't normally recommend films here in IMDB, but this one is a 4-star endeavor from a relatively new filmmaker from Bosnia. The USA title is FUSE so keep your eye out for it if it gets distributed here. If you liked the Oscar-winning Bosnian film "No Man's Land" then this film should be right up your alley. In this story, instead of the Serbs and Bosnians fighting they are forced to join together to welcome the arrival of an American President to their area. Excellent cast and very good blend of humor and poignancy. I really can't recommend this film highly enough and I wonder why no USA distributors have glommed onto it (somebody's asleep at the wheel). It will be screened in New York City for the New Director's festival (courtesy of MOMA and LCFS) in the next couple weeks...if you're in the neighborhood this is BEST BET if there ever was one!

On one level, I find Pjer Zalica's "Gori vatra" (called "Fuse" in English) interesting because it shows us a culture that we rarely get to see. But beyond that, I like it's focus on people's lives and associations. The movie portrays a small town in Bosnia. The town has seen its share of problems, and tensions persist between the Bosnians and Serbs. That's when they hear that Bill Clinton will be visiting. Not only does everyone do their darnedest to fix up the town, but a diplomat comes to try and make peace between the Bosnians and Serbs, and some of the characters realize the flaws in their relationships with each other and the come to understand the mistakes that they've made in their lives. All the while, the local children are learning The Animals' "House of the Rising Sun" to sing to Clinton. But a surprise lies in wait.

So is the main focus on the results of the 1990s civil war in the Balkans, or on another aspect? Hard to say exactly. But I will say that I admired the movie, as a look at how recent history has affected the people in the region, and as a look at how sudden events throw people's lives into flux. Worth seeing.

This is one of best war comedies. It is showing so much desperation, immoral, reality, corruption, relationships...and all stuff as it was after the Bosnian war. Nice presence of various unique and funny characters and good topic. Feelings of desperation dominate, which is relevant for the situation or topic. Good topic - the president's visit, which is what very close to real life's event. High presence of soldiers, police, government, makes this quality. The best are emotions which even if negative are so real and deep, and remind me not only of war but also anything smaller than than that is desperate such as financial, relationship, religious problems. The way that desperation is presented is so convincing, religious, moral, and deep. But also funny and like fairy-tale or dream. So sad, funny, deep, serious, magical. Mixed feelings. The only bad thing is lack of some real action and too negative. Good actors which I recognize from other good movies and series, especially Bosnia ones.

In the two years since the official end of the Bosnian "civil" war in late 1995, wartime conditions fester on in the little Muslim town where this film is set. Lack of goods breeds a robust black market. Lack of money means lousy health care and schools. Vengeful rage between Muslim villagers and Serbs from an adjacent town simmers close to the surface daily. Land mines continue to kill and maim. A broken old man carries on conversations with the dead son who visits him regularly. And then intriguing news arrives: U.S. President Bill Clinton is coming to visit.

The mayor immediately grasps the possibilities here: putting his town on the map, attracting tourists and fresh capital. He sets about hiding or destroying any evidence of malfeasance and unrest. Even the firemen of the town are forced to buddy up to their Serb counterparts nearby, in a show of solidarity and mended fences. Serbs are exhorted to spend a day in the town, pretending to have returned permanently. On the day of Clinton's visit, the mayor even finds a gaudy necktie to wear that is covered with dollar signs ($).

The American song rehearsed by school kids for the reception is "House of the Rising Sun," quite apt in a place where the flesh trade is an important aspect of the local economy. Myriad such ironies, along with dark humor, corruption, Romany musical riffs, and violence barely contained - in short, all the usual ingredients of films from the fragmented states of the former Yugoslavia - are on display here.

The story, written by the director, Mr. Zalica, is first rate, weaving individual dramas affecting several characters within the larger subtext, the seriously blighted condition that continues to typify Bosnia. The director, who teaches his craft in Sarajevo, evokes excellent performances from nearly every actor here, especially Bagdan Diklic, who plays Zaim, the aging former police chief; Izudin Bajrovic as Mugdim, the powerful, duplicitous fellow who replaced Zaim as Chief; Admir Glamocak as Hamdo, the skinny, cynical fireman; and Senad Basic as Velija, kingpin of illicit trade in the area.

Things go seriously amiss at the end, though all is not lost. As Elvis Mitchell so nicely put it, writing in the New York Times, "The title of (this) incident-filled but relaxed and oddly courtly comedy-drama isn't exactly misleading. Watching the story unfold is akin to watching a ridiculously extended fuse burn for so long that you almost forget there's a bomb at the end."

I would rank this film only a little lower on my "Yugoslavian implosion" favorites list than Emir Kusturica's stunning and bitterly funny hit film, "Underground." "Fuse" is currently part of the touring Global Lens 2005 series. This film deserves wider commercial distribution in the U.S. (In Bosnian, or Serbo-Croatian if you prefer, & English). My rating: 7.5/10 (low B+). (Seen on 04/17/05). If you'd like to read more of my reviews, send me a message for directions to my websites.