I didn’t know a little bit about this movie with a deep political metaphor until I watched it again yesterday. I didn’t know anything until I checked the information on the Internet and turned over the history of Yugoslavia. For Yugoslavia and Tito's future world, for people like me who don't care about politics, it simply doesn't exist.
The movie begins with the bombing of the Belgrade Zoo in 1941. Director Kusdulica consciously exposed the bloody scene of the zoo bombing. The birds were imprisoned in the birdcage, the gorillas were agitated, and all the animals were walking around in the rubble like humans, but accidentally, the bomb was approaching. What struck me most was the scene where the tiger eats the swan. A tiger was injured by a bomb and was dying. The swan next to it kept pecking at its face. The injured tiger made it clear that it was the target of bullying. After the tiger had brewed for a long time, he snapped off the swan’s neck in one breath. Two animals were there. Under the bombing of the German army, they all died together.
The film tells the half-century history of Yugoslavia from World War II to 1995. A well-deserved masterpiece. Blacky and Marko, a pair of good friends in the movie, are said to have real characters-Milan Rankovic and Sreten Zujovic, both Sevierians and confidants of Tito. Milan Rankovic is Marko in the movie, the manipulator behind the scenes, and Milan Rankovic was in charge of the guerrillas during the war. In the movie, Marko said to the bomb, "The bomb was not dropped by the Germans, it would have been dropped by the NATO allied forces." This film was completed in 1995 and proved the words of the characters in the play: 1999, NATO Peacekeeping forces bombed the Yugoslav League for 78 days and dropped 31,000 depleted uranium bombs.
Kusdulica won his second Palme d'Or trophy for his "Underground". He is the only three directors in the history of Cannes film to have won two Palme d'Or awards. The first one is "The Godfather" Coppola, and the latter is the Dane brothers. And he is undoubtedly the youngest. He was 41 years old when "Underground" won the award. This year, the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina had just started; this year, another blockbuster political allegory "Forrest Gump" swept the world and won an Oscar.
The most direct political metaphor of "Underground" is a symbol of Yugoslavia during the Tito period. It is said that every person, every generation, every religion is reflected in the basement. Since I don't understand Slavic culture at all, I can't distinguish the cultural symbols in the film at all. Blacky was used by his communist friend Marko to produce weapons alive in the basement for 20 years. He wants to prove to Marko that even if they are isolated from the outside, they have achieved great victories. Blacky and his comrades underground built the M-84 tank. This tank is Tito’s greatest pride. He believes that this tank is the product of the unity of all provinces in the country. Marko, a poet, revolutionary, and businessman, is the only contact in the underground world. He plays the song "Lily Malian" to show people in the dark world what is happening in the outside world. The most sentimental and humorous scene is the encounter between Blacky and his son, who has been in the basement for 20 years, arriving on the ground. The son sees the moon as the sun, and points to the deer as a horse. This reminds me of the Cultural Revolution period and the ridiculous history beyond. Others think of "Underground" as Plato and his cave. The first things in Western philosophy can also be found in the movie.
An outstanding director lies in the ambiguity of his text. The meeting of the dead in the ocean in "Underground" is the result of paying tribute to Jean Vigo's "Atlanta Movie". The reunion between the monkey Soni and the host Yuna is a Chaplin-like comedy theater scene, as well as a Fellini style. Elephant. The director himself later explained that Soni, a monkey, runs through the character from head to toe in the movie. It symbolizes stupidity and simplicity. It opens the passage from the basement to the outside world, and it also finds the way out from the maze-like basement. In my opinion, the monkey Soni, the only survivor in the movie, is very explanatory. When its owner finally hanged himself and all its friends were killed, it still existed. The only reason may be its nature, simple and stupid. Is it true that only such a life can survive the torrent of history?
What made me shudder the most was the scene where the stupid brother Yuna took his elder brother and the betrayer Marko to death with a cane. Behind the middle shot is a sculpture of Jesus on the cross, and wars are raging in the back. The scene of Cain killing his brother in the "Bible" immediately came to my mind.
The most beautiful scene in the movie is what I have to say, Chagall's oil painting. The bride floating in the sky directly imitated the image of a Russian painter. Chagall has always been one of my favorite painters, and the flying man is his most classic symbol. The director himself has many similarities with Chagall. He was born in an Orthodox family and was exiled abroad. The homesickness cannot be dispelled. Many scenes in the movie are directly a copy of Chagall's pictures, people's marriage, separation, and war scenes. Kusdulica directly used the same colors and scenery in Chagall's "Fire". Chagall's rich dreamy color is almost the keynote of the entire movie.
In the end, I didn't see it clearly. The picture that I learned after checking the information was a group of cows wearing flowers on the shore. After reading the English materials, I realized that the soul of the deceased had re-entered the new body, looking for happiness and forgetting. The last continent separated in the movie is the map of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Kusdulica split his motherland from other continental European civilizations. On an isolated island, a group of reborn people were reveling heartily at the banquet. They are getting farther and farther from Europe... This degraded with a powerful humorous style. The painful way reminds me of the first sentence in the movie, "Once, there was a country called Yugoslavia." At the end of the play, the director puts on the subtitles, and the story is far from over. Yes, what direction can a director without a country point out in the movie? Everything is directionless. All he can do is to place the objects he hates and likes on the Balkan Peninsula and drift to the unknown end of the universe.
In the following three years of "Underground", Kusdulica was discouraged because of political "incorrectness", "anti-Tito", "slander of communism", "suspicion of supporting fascism" and so on, and no new film came out.
On April 27, 1992, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was completely disintegrated, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, consisting of the two republics of Serbia and Montenegro, was formally declared established. On April 24, a native of Sarajevo in France, Kusdulica published an article on "Le Monde" and wrote a moving text-"Europe, my city is burning!" ", telling the Europeans to save Yugoslavia together. Perhaps this article can explain some of the reasons why he filmed "Underground". The translation is as follows:
"For hundreds of years, the war and riots on the Balkan Peninsula have not stopped: this is a land torn apart by the great empires. The Roman Empire was divided into two halves of the East and West. This is the land where the Ottoman Empire witnessed its end. This is the land where the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell. Europe! The confrontation between the Muslim Bosnia and Serbia Bosnia is not credible It is man-made. These confrontations stand in the ashes left by the dead empires. These confrontations continue for no reason in the nationalist movement. Europe! This is your flames of war, and you need to extinguish it. Europe! If you have ever existed, it is time to test your conscience."
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