Emir Kusturica

Emir Kusturica

Underground (Serbian: Подземље / Podzemlje), is a 1995 comedy-drama film directed by Emir Kusturica, with a screenplay co-written by the director and Dušan Kovačević. It is also known by the subtitle Once Upon a Time There Was One Country (Serbian: Била једном једна земља/Bila jednom jedna zemlja), which was the title of the 5-hour mini-series (the long cut of the movie) shown on Serbian RTS television. The film uses the epic story of two friends to portray a Yugoslav history from the beginning of World War II until the beginning of Yugoslav Wars. The film was an international co-production with companies from Yugoslavia (Serbia), France, Germany, Czech Republic and Hungary. The theatrical version is 163 minutes long. In interviews, Kusturica stated that his original version ran for over 320 minutes, and that he was forced to cut it by co-producers. Underground won the Palme d'Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. It was Kusturica's second such award after When Father Was Away on Business (1985). It went on to win other honours.

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