Serbian director Emir Kusturica's 1995 "Underground", set between 1941 and 1992, is a black comedy that satirizes Yugoslavia's tragic and absurd war history. The intensity of the imagery, the richness of the content, and the emotion of "Underground" are indeed wonderful works after 30 years.
During World War II, Yugoslavia was occupied by the German army, and the partisan Marco took his good buddy Black Boy into the party to fight against fascism. Black Box is deeply in love with the theater actress Natalie, and he plans a vigorous heroic rescue operation to save the beauty from the German army.
Enraged, the German generals led their troops to recapture Natalie and capture Black Boy and torture her, although Marco managed to rescue them, Black Boy was accidentally seriously injured and had to stay in the cellar to recuperate. Marco fell in love with Natalie at first sight, and Mark, who was eager to possess Natalie, simply did what he planned and sealed the cellar forever.
Ma Ge put Black Box in charge of the underground military factory, and used various means to make him think that the war was not over, and did not tell them the real situation of the outside world, but he did not expect that this letter was sealed for twenty years, and Marco married Natalie, and in the cellar, Black Box and the others believed that World War II was still going on, and was still busy with the war that did not exist.
In an accident, the tank bombed the cellar, and Blackboy took the opportunity to escape from the cellar to fight the Germans, hoping to do his part for the motherland, but found that the facts he knew were all false. Later, when the civil war broke out, Black Jay became a mercenary who did not belong to any of the forces, and continued to settle old grievances and hatreds on the battlefield where his compatriots were killing each other.
"Underground" looks like it was filmed by a drunken person, but if you think about it, you will be amazed at its sharpness. The whole film is already ridiculous, and the scenes filmed in the play are even more absurd, it is difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood, life is like a play, is all this real, propaganda, or artificial illusion?
The people who live in the middle can't figure it out. On both sides of the war, on one side is the terrible and merciless war, and on the other side is the indulgence of people who cannot see tomorrow. There are no real heroes, everyone is a tragic little person.
There are three chapters in this film, war, cold war, and war appear in turn, implying that the war will not end at all, history repeats itself, hot and cold are wars, and when it is cold, it may be a war without a gun, but all kinds of ideological conflicts and class differences are still brewing the next hot war.
In the last scene of the film, there is a burnt wheelchair hopelessly circling in circles, as if to summarize the conclusion of the whole film. And in the last scene, the happy people finally reunite and celebrate, but after death, the soil they are on is not a piece of land, but a small piece of mini island drifting farther and farther away, as if lost in some memory of the past, impossible to find in reality.
"Underground" uses a crazy love triangle to describe the real situation in Yugoslavia, the madness of war may not be understood by everyone, but love is universal. Therefore, although this film carries complex historical information, it can move uninformed audiences in a popular form.
"Underground" is a black absurd tragicomedy, showing the tragic history of Yugoslavia for half a century, from the German invasion in World War II, to the period of relatively stable development led by Tito between the United States and the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and finally to the brutal result of the civil war that broke out in the Union after Tito's death.
Director Emile Kusturica, who won the Palme d'Or, the highest honor at the Cannes Film Festival, for the second time with this film, rubbed the blood and tears of his family and country into the grievances and hatreds between Marco, Blackboy and Natalie, and used circus-like crazy noise, but at the same time extremely accurate image symbols, crying and laughing to tell this war story that was not finished at the time of filming. The poem-like and dream-like ending is enough to leave a name in film history.
The most modern elements of this film can correspond to a large number of the real situation in Yugoslavia, but even if the audience does not understand, they can still find moving from the love, family affection, and national stories in the play, which is the master's storytelling skills.
In the movie, Marco has a line that is: We are all crazy, but we haven't been tested yet. It's hard for me to argue with him.