CINEOS Premiere
Underground
A carnival of a film about the birth, lies, and death of Yugoslavia — where the brass band plays the same tune over liberation and slaughter alike, and a man is kept underground for decades by his best friend's greatest con.
Every feeling is played at full volume — weeping, screaming, guns fired into the air — and that theatrical excess is the point, not a flaw. The Balkan brass makes your body want to dance, then keeps playing over atrocity until the pleasure curdles into complicity. Underneath the carnival the losses pile up — a country, decades, a son, an illusion — and the final image lands with the strange heaviness of grief for something that never quite existed, taking days to metabolise.
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FAQ
Is it a comedy or a tragedy?
Both, violently at once. It's a raucous drunken party for most of its length, and the party is exactly how it breaks your heart — the joy is real, which is why the ending costs so much.
Do I need to know Yugoslav history?
Helpful, but not required. The film gives you the feeling of a country consuming itself; the specifics deepen it, but the grief for a place built on lies comes through without a history lesson.