Despite my respect for Kusturica's great previous pieces of art such as "Do You Remember Dolly Bell?" or "When Father Was Away on Business", I find the movie "Underground" as a very irritating distortion of historical facts and politically motivated in favor of the Serbian anti-Titoist 'chetnik' ultra-nationalism which Kusturica supports (he left his home-city Sarajevo for Belgrade and sided with the ultra-nationalist policy during the Bosnian war)
Kusturica's overly exaggerated metaphoric 'scary story' about former Tito's Yugoslavia depicting a life of people being kept in isolation and total ignorance about the rest of the world for a half century, manipulated by an "evil-commie" leader may be an appropriate metaphor for the former Enver Hoxha's Stalinist Albania and the Eastern Bloc countries such as USSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany etc. but certainly NOT for Tito's Yugoslavia which was NOT a part of the Eastern bloc (since the conflict with Stalin in 1948). Yugoslavia under Tito was a leading founder of the Non-Alligned Movement (not East, not West) highly opened to the rest of the world in many aspects (arts, fashion, music, film etc.) The citizens under Tito enjoyed a freedom of movement which gave them opportunity to learn and experience the rest of the world and there was a free exchange of goods and ideas with the rest of the world (expecially with the West who helped Yugoslavia to some extent as a buffer zone to the former USSR and it's satellite countries)
Speaking of Kusturica himself, during that SAME socialist Yugoslavia that he criticizes and ridicules so strongly in this movie, he was actually a highly successful and respected movie director and he was involved in the Sarajevo rock'n'roll and art urban subculture (such as the crazy Sarajevo "New Primitivsm" movement which was related to punk rock and the new wave for example, then the 'Monthy Pythonic' "Surrealist" movement etc.). He is the last person from whom I could expect such cynicism and so bitter discontent for that historical period. Taking all this into account Kusturica is very dishonest with this movie and I must say ungrateful.
The pseudo-Orwellian allegories in this movie may only fool ignorant viewers looking for some "heartbreaking story about people suffering under the 'communist Inquisition' somewhere there in the east". I strongly believe that every viewer well informed about the history would agree with this.
However, as a person who lives in this Balkan region, in this movie I would agree with the way the foreign interventionist policy was presented: selfish, cynical, greedy, using the complicated Balkan situation for own geopolitical purpose, taking or switching sides in the Balkan conflicts, playing "divide and rule" etc.
Kusturica's overly exaggerated metaphoric 'scary story' about former Tito's Yugoslavia depicting a life of people being kept in isolation and total ignorance about the rest of the world for a half century, manipulated by an "evil-commie" leader may be an appropriate metaphor for the former Enver Hoxha's Stalinist Albania and the Eastern Bloc countries such as USSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany etc. but certainly NOT for Tito's Yugoslavia which was NOT a part of the Eastern bloc (since the conflict with Stalin in 1948). Yugoslavia under Tito was a leading founder of the Non-Alligned Movement (not East, not West) highly opened to the rest of the world in many aspects (arts, fashion, music, film etc.) The citizens under Tito enjoyed a freedom of movement which gave them opportunity to learn and experience the rest of the world and there was a free exchange of goods and ideas with the rest of the world (expecially with the West who helped Yugoslavia to some extent as a buffer zone to the former USSR and it's satellite countries)
Speaking of Kusturica himself, during that SAME socialist Yugoslavia that he criticizes and ridicules so strongly in this movie, he was actually a highly successful and respected movie director and he was involved in the Sarajevo rock'n'roll and art urban subculture (such as the crazy Sarajevo "New Primitivsm" movement which was related to punk rock and the new wave for example, then the 'Monthy Pythonic' "Surrealist" movement etc.). He is the last person from whom I could expect such cynicism and so bitter discontent for that historical period. Taking all this into account Kusturica is very dishonest with this movie and I must say ungrateful.
The pseudo-Orwellian allegories in this movie may only fool ignorant viewers looking for some "heartbreaking story about people suffering under the 'communist Inquisition' somewhere there in the east". I strongly believe that every viewer well informed about the history would agree with this.
However, as a person who lives in this Balkan region, in this movie I would agree with the way the foreign interventionist policy was presented: selfish, cynical, greedy, using the complicated Balkan situation for own geopolitical purpose, taking or switching sides in the Balkan conflicts, playing "divide and rule" etc.