Delirious in its excess, but never less than ferociously intelligent and operatically emotional, Underground represents one of those rare, exhilarating moments when an outsize artistic vision is fueled by an apparently unlimited budget. Not to be missed.
Underground
ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A COUNTRY
1995 · 2h 50m · Not Rated
Comedy, Drama, War
Directed by
Emir Kusturica
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Underground
Overview
Black marketeers Marko and Blacky manufacture and sell weapons to the Communist resistance in WWII Belgrade, living the good life along the way. Marko's surreal duplicity propels him up the ranks of the Communist Party, and he eventually abandons Blacky and steals his girlfriend. After a lengthy stay in a below-ground shelter, the couple reemerges during the Yugoslav Civil War of the 1990s as Marko sees the opportunity to exploit the situation.
Director and cast
- Emir Kusturica Director
- Predrag 'Miki' Manojlović as Marko Dren
- Lazar Ristovski as Petar 'Crni' Popara
- Mirjana Joković as Natalija Zovkov
- Slavko Štimac as Ivan Dren
- Ernst Stötzner as Franz
- Srđan 'Žika' Todorović as Jovan Popara
- Mirjana Karanović as Vera
- Milena Pavlović Čučilović as Jelena
- Danilo 'Bata' Stojković as Deda
- Borivoje Todorović as Golub
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
A triumph of mise en scene mated to a comic vision that keeps topping its own hyperbole.
A rich, vibrant, visually spectacular survey of the changes the place has gone through during the past 50 years.
Kusturica takes us from wacky farce to harrowing grief to lyrical fantasy to bloody horror. To ignore any side of Underground is to do it injustice.
Underground is a bizarre, often repellent anti-war parable that takes forever to state the obvious but hits some scattered high notes on the way.
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