Underground (1995)
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Film details
Comedy · Drama · War · Emir Kusturica · 2h 47min
Synopsis
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 Yugoslavian Civil War of the 1990s as Marko sees the opportunity to exploit the situation.
Verdict
Surreal allegory about Yugoslavia: complex, symbolic, and politically dense.
In-depth analysis
Emir Kusturica crafted in Underground one of the densest and most symbolically saturated political allegories in European cinema. The film is not a conventional historical account, but rather a surrealist parable about Yugoslavia: the basement where Petar and his family live under deception represents the lie of the communist regime; the 20 years of farce, the systematic ideological manipulation; the manufacturing of weapons, the perpetuation of conflict as a tool of control. The symbolism is deliberately hermetic: the inverted Christ is not gratuitous blasphemy, but rather an image of a moral world turned upside down, where betrayal masquerades as protection and war is sold as peace. The white horse and the goose amidst the fire evoke the persistence of the sacred amidst the devastation. Kusturica offers no easy answers nor unilateral condemnation — he criticizes fascism, communism, and nationalism with equal ferocity. The wartime violence is constant yet stylized; the language, harsh. This is a work for mature viewers capable of discerning political allegory without the director needing to hold their hand. It is not suitable for children or adolescents, but not due to deconstructive ideology, but rather due to its interpretive complexity and thematic weight.