Underground (film)

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Podzemlje Underground

Directed by	Emir Kusturica
Produced by	Pierre Spengler
Written by	Dušan Kovačević Emir Kusturica
Starring	Miki Manojlović Lazar Ristovski Mirjana Joković Slavko Štimac
Music by	Goran Bregović
Release date(s)	May, 1995 (Cannes premiere) 26 December 1995 8 March 1996 20 June 1997
Running time	167 min.
Language	Serbian
IMDb profile

Underground (Serbian: Podzemlje) is a 1995 film directed by Emir Kusturica with a screenplay by Dušan Kovačević. It is also known by the subtitle Once Upon a Time There Was a County (Serbian: Bila jednom jedna zemlja), which was the title of the complete story shown on Serbian television as a 5-hour mini-series. The film uses the story of two friends to depict the history of Yugoslavia since the Second World War. The film was an international co-production between companies in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, France, Germany and Hungary.

Along with his 1988 film Time of the Gypsies, Underground is widely considered to be one of Kusturica's best films.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Awards
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Buddies Marko and Blacky (Serbian: Crni), are hard to take seriously. All they want to do is party their lives away. However, the Nazi bombing of Belgrade changes everything, and the resourceful duo comes up with an ingenious plan: one will stay aboveground while the other goes underground. The arrangement represents an ideal opportunity for all concerned: Blacky, his wife, and the rest of their friends and neighbours will be protected from the chaos going on above, while Marko and Natalija (Blacky's sometime mistress, later Marko's wife) will sell the weapons they're making down below. Everyone will share in the profits.

However, Marko neglects to mention to Blacky and the rest of the subterranean families that the Second World War has ended, and he makes a profit on the black market selling the weapons. In the second part of the film, set in the ealy 1960s, Blacky, along with his son Jovan, emerge from underground; believing WWII is still ongoing, they kill the lead 'Nazi' on the set of a film dramatising Blacky's own exploits twenty years earlier. In the ensuing manhunt, Jovan drowns but Blacky escapes. The final section, set in 1992 at the height of the Yugoslav wars, sees Blacky as an embittered yet still patriotic warlord; he inadvertently orders the execution of Marko and Natalija, who are still making a living as war profiteers, running guns for the various factions. In a very surreal ending, all friends and family are reunited at Jovan’s wedding.