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Underground

1995 film directed by Emir Kusturica

Film · TMDB

7.7

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.

Released: 1995-10-25170 minDir: Emir KusturicaComedy, Drama, War

Cast

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

This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.

Ratings · OMDb

IMDb

8/10

62,796 votes

Rotten Tomatoes

86%

Metacritic

79/100

Rated: Not Rated
Awards: 8 wins & 11 nominations total

via OMDb · IMDb

Key facts

Directed by: Emir Kusturica
Screenplay by: Dušan Kovačević Emir Kusturica
Story by: Dušan Kovačević
Produced by: Maksa Ćatović Pierre Spengler Karl Baumgartner
Starring: Miki Manojlović Lazar Ristovski Mirjana Joković Slavko Štimac
Cinematography: Vilko Filač
Edited by: Branka Čeperac
Music by: Goran Bregović
Production companies: Ciby 2000 Pandora Film Novofilm A.B. Barrandov Komuna Radio Television of Serbia Mediarex ETIC Tchapline Films Film Fonds Hamburg Eurimages
Distributed by: Ciby 2000 (France) Komuna (FR Yugoslavia)
Release date: 1 April 1995 ( 1995-04-01 ) (FR Yugoslavia)
Running time: 170 minutes

Key dates

Published: 20 June 1997

via Wikidata · CC0

Wikidata facts

Instance of: film
Award: Lumière Award for Best Foreign Film
Genre: war film
Country of origin: Yugoslavia
Original language: German
Main subject: World War II
Director: Emir Kusturica
Screenwriter: Emir Kusturica
Cast member: Helmut Schmidt
Composer: Goran Bregović

Article

Underground (Serbian: Подземље, romanized: Podzemlje), is a 1995 epic satirical absurdist dark comedy war film directed by Emir Kusturica, with a screenplay co-written with Dušan Kovačević. It is also known by the subtitle Once Upon a Time There Was One Country (Serbian: Била једном једна земља / Bila jednom jedna zemlja), the title of the five-hour miniseries (the long cut) shown on Serbian RTS television.

The film uses the epic story of two friends to portray a Yugoslav history from the beginning of World War II until the beginning of the Yugoslav Wars. It is an international co-production with companies from Yugoslavia (Serbia), France, Germany, Czech Republic and Hungary. The theatrical version is 163 minutes long. Kusturica stated in interviews that his original version ran for over five hours, and that co-producers forced edits.