Cirkus Columbia

A man returns to his village after twenty years together with his younger girlfriend, as former Yugoslavia is about to be dissolved. His wife, from whom he never divorced, lives in his elderly home with their now adult son. A lighthearted family drama that is set in the peaceful period that preceded the Bosnian War.

Cirkus Columbia takes us back to Bosnia-Herzegovina in the early nineties. The communist regime has been overthrown and a new democratic government is in place. All supporters of the old regime have been pardoned. Divko Buntic arrives in his native village in his flashy red Mercedes, together with his young, sexy girlfriend Azra, his black cat Bonny and his pockets full of Deutschmarks. He claims back his old house and throws his ex wife Lucija and their son Martin out on the street, thinking he owns the world and that money makes people happy. However, fate turns against him when his black cat disappears, his son and Azra fall in love and the Balkan War breaks out. The contending village residents and their nationalist tendencies are portrayed with both flair and precision.
Based on a popular Croatian novel, Cirkus Colombia is Bosnian filmmaker Danis Tanovic’ fourth movie and was one of the audience favorites at the 2011 International Film Festival Rotterdam. Starring famous Serbian actor Miki Manojlović.
Tanovic won an Oscar for his film No Man’s Land, which will be screened at the 2014 Movies that Matter Festival as part of the Tanovic retrospective, along with his new film Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker.