This Is Yugoslavia Calling: Time of the Gypsies (1989)

Emir Kusturica's minor masterpiece is as much a visual feast as it is an emotional one. Employing a largely amateur cast and the wonderful music of Goran Bregovic, it will delight you from its wonderful single-shot opening until the devastating ending.

The chaotic ensemble narration that Kusturica so efficiently used in Underground (1995) and Black Cat, White Cat (1999) owes its roots to Time of the Gypsies. Pehran is a Romany gypsy, who lives with his grandmother and uncle in a Yugoslavia of their own creation. His life is complicated by a multitude of things: he is hopelessly in love with Azra, whose mother's opinion of Pehran is not very high; his gypsy king uncle is neck-deep in debt; his sister needs a surgery to fix her leg ...