Black Bomber

Set in a futuristic Belgrade of 1999, this action/adventure/comedy takes its name from the title character (Bjelogrlic), a hip urban deejay who, along with his band of not-so-merry pranksters, operates a pirate radio station while fighting to topple the current dictator, a sort of Serbian Big Brother. Aiding him in his subversive mission is a beautiful blonde rock & roll singer (Dobra) who seems more interested in getting it on than fighting for the cause (at least at first). While the Black Bomber spins Western artists like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and spouts idealistic monologues, Belgrade -- resembling less of a modern city than a bombed-out Hell -- continues to crumble around him, with fascistic riot police and neo-Nazi thugs beating up and killing everyone who gets in their way. When the watchful gaze of Big Brother finally falls on our leather-jacketed protagonist, he's reduced to taking his message of freedom on the road -- literally -- while chaos rains around him. Ah, youth. Much of this energetic, rock & roll-fueled thriller is loosely based on recent student uprisings in war-torn Serbia; it's hard to tell where reality ends and the fantasy begins. Some may liken it to a more violent updating of the Christian Slater vehicle Pump Up the Volume of a few years back, but the comparisons are nominal. Instead, director Bajic invests the film with the runaway-train feel of some of Roger Corman's earlier teen exploitation flicks: Never let the story get in the way of a good sex scene. It's a violent, edgy, and wildly entertaining glimpse into a future that, for some, is already here.