Underground

Rating: 6/10 (1 April 2014)

I found this film French / German / Hungarian listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, the title didn't suggest any particular plot to me, but when I read about it I was certainly up for watching it. Basically, set in 1941, the story follows the friendship between sociable Petar 'Blacky' Popara (Lazar Ristovski) and intelligent Marko (Miki Manojlovic) who live in Belgrade, they met while drunk at a late night musical procession, they also become part pf the Communist Party. They also share working together in dodgy business activities, and are both attracted to the beautiful actress Natalija (Mirjana Jokovic), but of course the dark days of World War II come upon them, they and many other villagers are forced to take cover and go into refuge in an underground shelter. In the underground are a variety of weapons, and all the townspeople can do, as the bombs fall and the fighting goes on up above, is work together to protect, and in some cases, provide these weapons to the forces up above. Years pass and the war does eventually come to an end, but with the work progressing so well below Marko and Natalija decide to keep the momentum by making the people believe that the war is still going on, they achieve this playing sound effect recordings from previous noisy incidents. This deception continues from the end of World War II all the way to the beginnings of both the Cold War and the Yugoslav Wars, but Blacky realises the actions of Marko and Natalija, he orders them both be executed for making money both for taking advantage of innocent and vulnerable lives and for making their money with the weapons manufacturing, in the end all surviving townspeople reunite at a wedding. Also starring Slavko Stimac as Ivan, Ernst Stötzner as Franz, Srdjan Todorovic as Jovan, Mirjana Karanovic as Vera and Milena Pavlovic as Jelena. This film is a good mix of both lighthearted and dark humour, and some of the realities of devastation and psychological affects during the times of war, there are some good memorable moments where a monkey fires a gun in a tank underground, and of course the sound effects of war tricking the people hiding, I admit it is a little slow in places and a little long, but an unusually interesting epic Second World War comedy drama. Good!