- Title: YUGOSLAVIA/FILE: CANNES FILM FESTIVAL WINNER "UNDERGROUND" SHOWN IN BELGRADE
- Date: 19th June 1995
- Summary: CANNES , FRANCE , 28 MAY, 1995 (REUTERS) ACTRESS JEANNE MOREAU ANNOUNCING BEST FILM /PALME D'OR TO "UNDERGROUND" BOSNIAN FILM DIRECTOR EMIR KUSTURICA COLLECTING GOLDEN PALM (PALME D'OR) AWARD FOR HIS FILM, "UNDERGROUND" ACTORS TAKING TO STAGE, CROWD APPLAUDING (CAPTION ON SCREEN) KUSTURICA BOWING TO THE AUDIENCE / RECIEVING AWARD AUDIENCE STANDING
- Embargoed: 4th July 1995 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA
- City:
- Country: Yugoslavia
- Reuters ID: LVADZEYK2NML5HYHT00JCT5XDPTB
- Story Text: Sarajevo-born film director Emir Kusturica has denied accusations that his Cannes Film Festival winner "Underground" is a work of propaganda.
Kusturica made the comments as the war movie premiered before an audience of 4000 in in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
"The only propaganda "Underground" shows is of the pure human emotions", Kusturica said.
The premiere was attended by Belgrade's leading society figures, including the alleged Serbian war criminal Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan and his wife Svetlana.
"Underground" is a bitter epic of wars which spans fifty years from the Nazi bombing of Belgrade in 1941 to the current fighting raging in the region, as seen through the eyes of partisans trapped in a cellar.
Kusturica, formerly Yugoslavia's most successful director, and also winner of the 1985 Golden Palm award for "When Father Was Away on Business", said that he dedicated the "Underground" to Belgrade.
""When Father Was Away on Business" was dedicated to Sarajevo, I dedicate this film to Belgrade", Kusturica said.
Set in Belgrade in an underground city, the plot has a World War Two profiteer who hides his colleagues from the Nazis in a cellar where a group of partisans live and manufacture weapons.
When the war comes to an end, he tells the partisans that it is still raging and continues to lie to them for 50 years, making money from their output.
The partisans finally emerge only to see war still raging. In fact, they are on a film set where their supposed wartime heroics are being reenacted. Later, they plunge into the current conflict.
Fleeing United Nations peacekeepers tell them that Yugoslavia no longer exists. The film also portrays U.N. soldiers taking rake-offs on arms and drugs trafficking.
Critics said Kusturica aims to portray the absurdity of conflict in a tragic comedy. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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