Farcical Phantasmagoria of Yugoslavian History

Rating: 10/10 (20 February 2007)

Underground is the greatest film of the 1990s and, potentially, the greatest film of the last 25 years. It's terribly funny but ultimately heartbreaking and, yes, it's about war. In fact, it's among the greatest war films ever conceived.
The film follows Marko and Petar, small-time Communist gun-runners in pre-WWII Belgrade. The movie opens as they drunkenly make-off with an arms-cache to the tune of a gypsy band. The next day, their city is destroyed and the animals have escaped from the zoo, metaphorically and literally. With their families, Marko and Petar escape underground to Marko's uncle's cellar where they intend to wait out the war. The war stops, but Marko fools the cellar-dwellers into thinking that the war rages on and enlists their help in building guns. Of course, those living in the cellar eventually learn the truth.
With this movie, Kusturica created a hermetic world that is witty, farcical, surreal, and ultimately sublime. The photography is stunning and Kusturica's shot-composition is painterly. Underground is an amazing work of art, one that should be treasured not only for its cinematic value but for its cultural and historical values as well.