Who's Singin' Over There? (1981)

It is a performances centric movie

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Moving over to ICM after IMDb stupidly shut the message boards down,I took a look at the Challenges page. Among the year-long challenges,I noticed an exciting "exchange" project,which led to me finding out who's singing over there.The plot:A day before the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia takes place, Aleksa Simic, Lovac, Brka, Celavi,a newly wed couple and a budding singer get aboard Mr. Krstić old,pig farm bus and head for Belgrade. Initially finding a flat tire and a damaged bridge to be forks in the road,the group soon find themselves taking a detour into an unfolding invasion. View on the film:Broadly drawing each passenger,the screenplay by Dusan Kovacevic drives the group down a dry wit folk tale path,where Simic's honour of being a WWI vet and Brka's Germanophile and others creates A Canterbury Tale sense of each of them revealing their backgrounds via stories,as they drive into oncoming history. Taking the wheels off the bus with a deliciously dark satirical explosion, Kovacevic cleverly captures the attempt of the newlyweds to live a normal life under the fog of war,whilst ruthlessly slicing into the "troubled" history of Yugoslavia,emphasised in Brka being given the speaking style/manner of WWII PM of Yugoslavia/Axis puppet Milan Stojadinović.Driving down the rickety roads of the Balkans,director Slobodan Sijan & cinematographer get under the daily grind of the characters with a rustic green and yellow appearance casting a folk atmosphere over the movie. Conjuring up a touch of excellent absurdist comedy, Sijan brings a Greek Chorus on board,as the passengers look over to find out who's singing over there.

So, first information to start with before(or after) watching this movie is that this film is officially voted in 1998 as a best Yugoslav film of all times by Yugoslav Film Academy. This film is an absolutely must watch for all Serbian citizens or foreigners who would like to meet Serbian culture or people. This movie is one of the funniest, saddest and most accurate portrayals of the mentality of Serbian people. "Ko to tamo peva" simply has it all - interesting human story, great historical significance(beginning of WW2), fabulous social commentary, hilarious and smart comedy based on mentality of people. Its' scenario also has a lot of quotes very popular in Serbia.

For all of you not coming from ex-Yugoslavia, the movie can be considered as confusing...Well it would be hard to explain its nature, but if I need to put it in one line message it would be-" A black humor metaphor about Serbian mentality sliced into thousands of layers which are working simultaneously, in one specific and important moment of our history, German air attack on Belgrade and beginning of WW2 for Yugoslavia" . Each character represents specific stereotype, deeply rooted in our heritage, and we are enjoying in laughing at ourselves and our prejudice ( however, not so liberal when the same has been done by someone abroad:))) Nevertheless, this is just for your better understanding and convenience, it should not drive your conclusions as the story is universal most of the time and honest, and considered to be "the best film ever made" in former Yugoslavia. You'll not find heroes in it, nor Hollywood happy ending, just a bare, brave and sometimes brutal strive for better life. Hope you'll enjoy it, if not, forgive us on our specific and somewhat "bitter sense of humor", but that would be the story of our lives...

Actually I'm surprised there were so many comments about this movie. I saw it as part of a Slavic film festival at a major American University. But nobody in USA has heard of it, which is a real shame! The dynamics between the people are what makes it both funny and sad. They are stuck together on a long bus trip--someplace most of us have been!! But I never had one like this!! My favorite scene is the one where they stop for the funeral. Then the man & woman sneak off for some Lovemaking in the forest but everybody follows them to watch without them knowing! Just as she raises her skirt and he enters her all the way--the consumptive starts hacking & they realize everybody is watching!! Talk about surprised! But...you really have to feel for them even if it is hilariously funny! When you see the ending it is sort of ironic that they enjoyed themselves while they did! Serb humor at it's best!