Review
Marko Dren and Peter Popara, who goes by Blacky, are two ride-or-die best friends in 1940s Belgrade. Blacky is celebrating his enrollment in the Communist Party. The next day, Germans bomb Belgrade and occupy the city. Blacky's opportunistic mistress, Natalija, catches the eye of a German officer, and Marko has an eye for Natalija. This drives Blacky to force her to marry him, starting an epic story that spans decades and tests how strong Marko and Blacky's bond truly is.
Underground is a visual wonder. Every scene is staged on an epic scale, with the cinematography and production design working overtime to complement the surreal, absurdist script. The performances match this in a fable about loyalty to country, friends, and lovers.
The story is dense with cultural and historical references, and viewers (like me) unfamiliar with Belgrade's history might find it hard to follow. The overarching story is easy to follow, but character motivations and the sense of humor (and it is funny) can feel like historical inside baseball. The movie doesn't bother explaining its allegories, which is as commendable as it is unfortunate for people like me.
Nonetheless, this is cinema at its most ambitious, with an ending that helps recontextualize what comes before. This fable spans decades, and the circumstances Marko and Blacky find themselves in are appropriately outlandish and entertaining, even when set against each other.
This is ultimately a movie I appreciate more than I can say I was invested in. Maybe I don't get Balkan humor; maybe I lack the cultural context. But this won the Palme d'Or when it was released, and it's easy to see why, even if I couldn't fully wrap my arms around it.
Focus Group Film Club
Aug 2026: A Trip to the Balkans
