This feature-length documentary by Emir Kusturica is not just about the band No Smoking, whose member the director has been since 1986, but it is also, and mainly, about musicians who reflect the wild, crazy, creative, even dramatic world of the Balkans. The band got together in Yugoslavia at the beginning of the eighties and did its own thing right from the beginning. It sought inspiration in jazz and rock, but drew on a variety of styles of Balkan and Romany melodies. Indeed, the history of the past twenty years, which has of course marked the group’s members, is reflected in what they play. The film begins in 2000 with an exceptionally successful tour. On the way, we get to know the individual musicians, including Kusturica’s son who plays drums. Using archive footage from the most varied sources, a portrait is assembled of their past and private lives. But most of all we have a terrific opportunity to watch them on stage – and even backstage – where they quite literally give their all.