It would be nice to report that this grim, fractious daisy chain of Yugoslavian torment in some way illuminated the black hole of the Balkan conflict. Set in 1998, during one long night in Belgrade, Cabaret Balkan depicts a world at its own throat. A cross-section of desperadoes brood, simmer, and rage, with each encounter culminating in a moment of violence. The director, Goran Paskaljevic, is a brutally didactic showman -- he's preaching to the damned. Emotional warfare is his ruling metaphor, yet when the characters in a movie are this alienated from one another, they can't help but shut us out as well.