Country: France, Germany, Hungary, Yugoslavia
Year: 1995
Duration: 312'
UNDERGROUND
Belgrade, 1941. The partisan Marko and his friend Blacky convince their group to find refuge in a tunnel and to make weapons for the black market. Natalija and Marko agree to make everyone believe that the war is still going on and he forces them to live in the tunnel for twenty years while he becomes an important member of Tito’s regime. When Natalija reveals the truth to Blacky, he abandons the tunnel along with his son Jovan, but they must come to terms with a new reality. Years later, when civil war breaks out, Jovan, the only survivor, finds everyone adrift on a bend of the Danube.
“My goal wasn’t to reply directly to the events that turned Bosnia into a bloodbath because I don’t think the mission of an artist is to express ‘à chaud’ about the times he lives in. The film starts with a war and ends with another one, but it first speaks of manipulation, passion, jealousy, violence and treason. It shows how two friends can lie to each other, and how one can hold the other one locked away from the world for a long time. It’s globally what Tito did with the Yugoslavs for thirty years.”
Biography
film director
Emir Kusturica
Emir Kusturica (Sarajevo, Bosnia, 1954) studied at the Film School of Prague (FAMU), graduating with the short film Guernica. His first film, Do You Remember Dolly Bell?, won the Golden Lion for Best First Work at the Venice Film Festival in 1981, while his second film, When Father Was Away on Business, won the Palme d’or at the Cannes Film Festival. When the war in Bosnia broke out in 1992 he found refuge in Belgrade, where he shot various films. In 1995 he won the Palme d’or once again with Underground, and in 1998 he received the Silver Lion in Venice with Black Cat, White Cat. In 2004 he made Life Is a Miracle and in 2008 he presented Maradona by Kusturica in Cannes.
FILMOGRAFIA
filmografia essenziale/essential filmography
Guernica (cm, 1978), Sjecas li se Dolly Bell (Ti ricordi di Dolly Bell?, 1981), Otac na sluzbenom putu (Papà... è in viaggio d’affari, 1985), Dom za vesanje (Il tempo dei gitani, 1988), Arizona Dream (Il valzer del pesce freccia, 1993), Underground (id., 1995), Magic Bus (cm, 1997), Crna macka, beli macor (Gatto nero, gatto bianco, 1998), Super 8 Stories (doc., 2001), Zivot je cudo (La vita è un miracolo, 2004), All the Invisible Children (ep. Blue Gypsy, id., 2005), Maradona by Kusturica (Maradona di Kusturica, doc., 2008).
Cast
& Credits
regia/director
Emir Kusturica
soggetto/story
Dusan Kovacevic dalla sua pièce teatrale/from his play Prolece u januaru
sceneggiatura/screenplay
Dusan Kovacevic, Emir Kusturica
fotografia/cinematography
Vilko Filacmontaggio/film editing
Brankaceperac
scenografia/production design
Miljen Kljakovic
costumi/costume design
Nebojsa Lipanovic
musica/music
Goran Bregovic
suono/sound
Marko Rodic
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Miki Manojlovic (Marko), Lazar Ristovski (Blacky), Mirjana Jokovic (Natalija) Slavko Stimac (Ivan), Ernest Stoetzner (Franz), Mirjana Karanovic (Vera), Milena Pavlovic (Jelena), Srdan Todorovic (Jovan)
produzione/production
CiBy 2000, Komuna Film, Pandora
