Call it a buddy movie, a road movie, a war movie, and you're right every time. It's a love story, too. A crazy escapade played out between the Danube and Delaware Rivers. A high-stakes journey by turns horrendous and hilarious...

Call it a buddy movie, a road movie, a war movie, and you're right every time. It's a love story, too. A crazy escapade played out between the Danube and Delaware Rivers. A high-stakes journey by turns horrendous and hilarious...

April 1999, and best buddies Mara and Pera are living the standard downsized existence of Belgrade's professional class. Mara is still lively and handsome at 70. Pera, her only child, is a 40-year-old film projectionist whose prospects are bleak at best. His job tanked along with the Yugoslav economy, and he long ago despaired of finding a woman who'd measure up to Mom.

Months before, Mara entered the U.S. Green Card Lottery without Pera's knowledge. Good news duly arrives, but the timing's lousy. Uncle Sam's greetings and salutations.

Bombs over Belgrade. Pera screws up the letter, throws it into the garbage, and joins his fellow Clinton-cursing tenants in the building's cramped subterranean bomb shelter.

Several nights and a direct hit on a building up the block later, an anxious Mara insists that Pera flee. He spends the pre-dawn hours digging through the neighborhood dump. At daybreak, the precious lottery letter is retrieved, and the two of them plot the great escape. First stop, Hungary, destination New York! Pera's ready to go but not without Mara. They've got a few bucks stashed away, and American and Serb friends across the Atlantic who'll put them up if they can just get past the INS Hellhounds guarding the US Embassy in Budapest.

It's just the beginning. A glorious tragi-comic adventure is underway...