Bure Baruta @ Cabaret Balkan (Буре барута @ Powder Keg, Serbian; 1998)
Director: Goran Paskaljević
I learned about this director when I watched 2016 'Dev Bhumi, Land of the Gods'. This film is another of his many highly acclaimed directed movies.
Made in the heady times of the 1990s when the Balkan country, Yugoslavia, was on the cusp of disintegrating, and every ethnic group was embroiled in conserving their dominance. Slobodan Milosevic's Army was terrorising, and the economy was in the pits.
This era even brought a new English word - 'Balkanisation'. Like Yugoslavia, which was synthetically united by the winning political powers of the Second World War and their own as six sovereign nations, Balkanisation is the term given when a few provinces want to gain autonomy from a country.
The film's first dialogue reminded me of a recent conversation at a dinner table with a friend. "This is a goddamned lousy country; why would anyone want to come back?" That was reminiscent of what someone uttered when the father of a young lawyer who excelled in his studies at a prestigious university overseas announced his intentions to return home to serve the country. *
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| Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam |
The movie is a composite of many loosely interlinked stories that show what happens when the rule of law collapses. People are only courteous to each other when they going is good. When the element of security is threatened, or when economic opportunities dwindle, our society suppressed animalistic behaviours surface. Gone are chivalry, respecting the weaker community members, respect for private property, concern for human dignity, regard for human life and sanctity of human bodies.
Human beings are considered civilised when they transfer their security duties to a third party, i.e., governing bodies and not getting their hands dirty. As long as these governments continue their control and legitimacy, law and order are maintained. When governance fails, and Man has to resort to his primordial ways of dispensing justice, the outcome is ugly. The dormant reptilian brain awakens.
* What started off as an Asian tiger with lots of hopes for the future, with the sound administrative background left by their colonial master, all the new nation of Malaysia had to do was to maintain its brain and head for more unexplored frontiers with the sky as their limit. But instead, the elected leaders opted for a self-defeating myopic path sacrificing meritocracy for supremacy of a certain race and religion. People say to coup de grace came when the elected government of GE14 was sabotaged by their own leaders in the name of race and religion again.
** Just after writing this post came the story of residents looting a convenience store after the massive floods in Shah Alam. Rather than emphasising the lack of rescue missions provided by the powers that be, the police seem to be more concerned that a crime has happened. They had forgotten that people were stranded on the roofs for more than 48 hours!
