`CABARET BALKAN' CHRONICLES CULTURE OF VIOLENCE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

Admirably made but too grim to wholeheartedly recommend, ``Cabaret Balkan'' is another in a long line of films from the wreckage of Yugoslavia that try to artfully interpret the political agony over there.

Previously titled ``The Powder Keg,'' ``Balkan'' is certainly theatrical enough to justify its new name, all the way down to featuring a sardonic master-of-ceremonies character. The narrative strategy is that Central European favorite, a roundelay. Only instead of the usual romantic handoffs associated with the form, this one is a circle of cruelty set in 1995 Belgrade. We follow a variety of individuals through one long, ever-darkening night as they threaten, browbeat, whine at and otherwise torment one another.

Based on Dejan Dukovski's play, ``Bure Baruta,'' and directed fluidly and unflinchingly by Goran Paskaljevic, the film presents a crackling kaleidoscope of rage. Seems apt, and it's never presented less than intelligently. Still, the whole depressing thing leaves you wondering if, perhaps, it might have been more artistically audacious to show a semblance of dignity or compassion surviving amid the over-obvious hostility.

``Anyone with any brains has left,'' an angry, chain-smoking taxi driver (Nebojsa Glogovac) rants to a fare (Miki Manojlovic) who indeed had brains but, for personal reasons we learn later, has come back. ``Everything here kills.''

Or, at the very least, brutalizes. A refugee kid's fender-bender with an older man's prized Volkswagen leads to violence. Two lifelong boxing buddies' confessions of intimate betrayals lead to violence. A young bully terrorizes passengers on a bus with, that's right, the threat of violence ...

The film moves from character to character, vignette to vignette, then rebounds on itself and on some people we've previously met. Everybody has some kind of ax to grind, and women - probably because they're easier targets - get extra grief. You could say this reflects the internecine animosity that's plagued the Balkans for centuries. You could also say that films like ``Before the Rain'' have already worked out the same idea more imaginatively.

``Cabaret Balkan'' has won scads of film festival awards, and if that encourages Serbian filmmakers to critically analyze their dysfunctional society, terrific. The irrationality and hate that disrupts life in that part of Europe is an important subject, eminently worthy of extended examination and artistic interpretation.

Those of us lucky enough to live in more cordial environments should be grateful that ``Cabaret Balkan'' is as bad a taste of that world as we'll likely be exposed to. Avoiding exposure to even that small, safe package of anguish is perfectly understandable, too.

The Facts

The film: ``Cabaret Balkan'' (R; violence, language, drug use, nudity).

The stars: Nebojsa Glogovac, Miki Manojlovic, Lazar Ristovski, Mirjana Jokovic, Nebojsa Milovanovic.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Goran Paskaljevic. Written by Paskaljevic, Dejan Dukovski, Filip David and Zoran Andric, based on Dukovski's play ``Bure Baruta.'' Produced by Paskaljevic and Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre. Released by Paramount Classics.

Running time: One hour, 40 minutes.

Playing: UA Warner Center, Woodland Hills; Five Star, Northridge; Laemmle Colorado, Pasadena; Laemmle Music Hall, Beverly Hills.

Our rating: Two and a half stars.