Podzemlje (1995) (Underground)
Emir Kusturica
Serbian/German/French/English/Russian
Emir Kusturica’s Underground (1995) has been torn apart in certain sections as pro-Milosevic propaganda that brushes aside Serbia’s atrocities in the Balkan Wars. I think that’s not only being too harsh on a relatively benign satire but also that it ascribes way too much intention and focus to a film that’s riddled with ideological inconsistencies, like most films. True that it presents Yugoslavia under Tito as a Platonic cave whose residents mistake the shadows on the wall – sometimes literally, as when the inmates of an underground cell watch faked footage from WW2, which they think is still on – for truth and who are kept united under a phantom enemy while being blind to internal fault lines. But construing Kusturica’s generally sentimental lament about the breakup of a nation as brothers start killing brothers and friends turn on each other as a case for Serbia comes across as a pre-determined approach to the film which writes down the answers before the questions. What’s most inviting about Underground is how it keeps poking at the nexus between politics and cinema. Marko (Miki Manojlović), whose rise to power mirrors Tito’s, appears to us like a filmmaker figure, directing his historical actors in an underground set illuminated by high-key lighting and marked by a bizarre communal mise en scène. (And what of Tito himself, who could be the seen as the helmer of a chaotic crew made to act out a Communist metanarrative?) The deep hierarchy of performances that pervades the film aptly throws light on the loss of “reality” and the alienation from history that seems to have characterized Yugoslavia’s tumultuous half-century since the end of the Second World War.
March 5, 2012 at 12:20 pm
That’s a fascinating take on the movie. Yes, the film was tad ambiguous in its ideological standpoint – but I felt that was a commendable choice as compared to any clearly defined stance. And unlike most East European films where the satire is mostly understated & subtle, the humour here was presented in a carnivalesque manner – something that truly differentiated this film from most renowned political satires that have emerged from that part of the globe.
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March 8, 2012 at 11:47 pm
Thanks Shubhajit. True, traces of Fellini here perhaps.
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March 5, 2012 at 12:37 pm
Finally! Kusturica reaches Seventh Art.
The existence of an international underground and its isolation from the politics of the ground is the most interesting aspect of this film’s plot. The past and the present existing simultaneously.
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March 8, 2012 at 11:48 pm
Ha, yes. Finally got around to seeing a couple of films by Kusturica. You’re, of course, right. The underground is literally a time capsule, immune to the flow of time and history.
Cheers!
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March 27, 2012 at 1:14 pm
Nice take on the movie, Srikanth. After having seen Life is a miracle, I’m desperately waiting for this to add in my collection
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March 30, 2012 at 10:35 pm
I thought On a different layer, the film adopts a metaphoric approach to demonstrate the reality of a war: a warmonger under the guise of Marko capitalizes on the gullibility of Blacky, representing an average citizen, to take control of the treasures of the land captured by alluring beauty of Natalija.
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March 31, 2012 at 11:22 am
That’s a valid reading I think, Subhasish. And this flexibility is what I think saves its skin in a way.
Cheers!
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