"A real underground film"

UNDERGROUND  




Original Title: Подземље (Podzemlje)
Year: 1995
Country: Serbia and Montenegro/France/Germany
Language: Serbian, German, English
Number: 901
Director: Emir Kusturica
Starring: Miki Manojlović, Lazar Ristovski, Mirjana Joković, Slavko Štimac 


Emir Kusturica's Underground is one of those movies you never thought you where gonna see again. It's reminds me actually very much about The Tin Drum in that sense that it's more like a fantasy fairytale than the usual war drama film. Instead of a ungrownable boy, we have an intelligent chimpanzee. We have a orchestra that follow our main protagonist around every where they go. Due to all this, the story is amazing, and the subtext is just a wonderful and sad portrayal about the repressing conflicts between all the ethic groups in Yugoslavia.

Underground takes place in Belgrade in Yugoslavia durring world war II. we follow two best friends, Marko and Blacky who both works for the resistance, and they also are in love with the same girl, the actress Natalija who's at the beginning is in love with a nazi officer. But she eventually falls for Marko, and not Blacky who seems to bought the rights for her. Marko and Blacky's family and friends is hidden in Marko's basement, where they eventually starts manufacture weapons. He knows that he can't have the women he loves as long as his friend is around. So he come up with a plan of hiding them in the basement, and be sure to role the siren on a regular basis so all the people in the basement know it's not safe. He continue to do this even a long time after the war is over. The people down there thinks the war is still going on. While Marko has become one of the most powerful communist leader, while he makes his "deceased" friend Blacky a hero by raising statues of him and even gives permission to make a film about his life. How long will this charade go on?



I think I give a shot and try to tell you what's the symbolism is. The concept of hiding people in the basement, is to hide the truth of what really happened. Compared to the yugoslavian conflicts, not between yugoslavians and the germans, but rather croats against serbs and other ethic groups that isn't meant to live side by side in the beginning. The only reason that yugoslavia was united, was because of the lies. But it was immediately broken when the only thing that kept them together was gone; yugoslavia's president Tito. After that, all the old scar went back, like the humiliations after the war, when the serbs massacring thousands of croats as revenge for supporting germany after the war. But no one except the croats knew about it. It was first after the war that the anger of being pulled under the carpet or underground really had reached the topp. Lies puls all people together no matter what differences, but lies will not last for ever, and when it does people starts to remember their disagreement. The only thing that can pull them together is a common enemy.

Underground is simply a joy to watch. It's both funny and sad. It's funny to see the two best friends Marko and Blacky run around in Belgrade underground like Paul Newman and Robert Redford in The Sting. I also like the passionate love affair between Marko and Natalija. The whole movie is pretty much like a Fellini film, in that sense it feels like a circus and where everything is possible. It also has a great message about war, and never have I seen such effective scenes of how horrifying a bombing is, as much as there are some funny situations. I really enjoyed this movie, and I really hope to see it again soon.


Grade: A


You can read all my reviews on:
http://www.flixster.com/user/filmfreak93