A family getting evicted from its home is no laughing matter, except if you’re watching “Cirkus Columbia,’’ a satiric comedy from, of all places, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Set in 1991, after the fall of communism in the Balkan nation and before the start of the Bosnian war, the film gets a lot of laughs out of an eviction.
The story centers on middle-aged Divko (Miki Manojlovic), who returns to his hick town in Bosnia after a 20-year exile in Germany. He brings with him a red Mercedes, a trophy girlfriend, lots of cash and Bonny, his lucky black cat. The first thing Divko does is throw his abandoned wife and 20-year-old son out of the family house. Then Bonny goes missing, and Divko’s girlfriend and son hook up.
The director is Danis Tanovic, whose 2001 antiwar black comedy “No Man’s Land’’ won a foreign-language Oscar. Two mediocre films followed; now “Cirkus Columbia’’ represents a welcome return to form.