A surreal, absurd mix of politics, sex, fantasty, black comedy and brutality that has been widely hailed as one of the decade's most exhilerating cinematic efforts. During World War II, a pair of friends in the Serb resistance hide in an intricate cellar. Years later, the war is over but the lies and deceptions continue. Winner of the award for Best Film at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.
Review 1:
"...Kusturica's ideas and images are undeniably potent..."
Source: Sight and Sound
p.53-4 03/01/1996
Review 2:
"...Lunatic epic....Rarely has absurdism made more sense..." -- Rating: A
Source: Entertainment Weekly
p.86 02/12/1999
Review 3:
"...Engaging and exhilarating....[Manojlovic] is superbly comic....Ristovski has the wild-eyed brute appeal of a silent film comic..."
Source: Variety
05/29/1995
Review 4:
"...It's a fascinating slice of political history....In its efforts to feel the pulse of human conscience, as well as the heart, it's dead on..."
Source: Los Angeles Times
p.C31 01/30/1998
Review 5:
"...UNDERGROUND asserts its own feverish surrealism..."
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
p.35 02/06/1998
Review 6:
"...Like a cross between Federico Fellini and Blake Edwards, with Mirjana Karanovic giving a fabulously uninhibited performance..."
Source: USA Today
p.8E 02/19/1999
Review 7:
3 stars out of 5 -- "[A] sprawling, allegorical epic...Kusturica throws everything into the mix..."
Source: Total Film
p.134 01/01/2007
Review 8:
3 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's still an extraordinary, barnstorming achievement, mixing pitch-black humour with a Fellini-esque sense of the grotesque..."
Source: Uncut
p.106 02/01/2007