TV series

Once Upon a Time There Was a Country

1996 · 1 season

A sprawling, surreal tragicomedy that feels like a drunken epic, blending absurd humour with the raw pain of a country's collapse.

Created by: Emir Kusturica
Genres: Drama, Comedy, War & politics
Starring: Predrag 'Miki' Manojlović, Lazar Ristovski, Mirjana Joković

Overview: Black marketeers Marko and Blacky manufacture and sell weapons to the Communist resistance in WWII Belgrade, living the good life along the way. Marko's surreal duplicity propels him up the ranks of the Communist Party, and he eventually abandons Blacky and steals his girlfriend. After a lengthy stay in a below-ground shelter, the couple reemerges during the Yugoslavian Civil War of the 1990s as Marko sees the opportunity to exploit the situation. An extended television version of Emir Kusturica's Palme d'Or winning Underground.

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In the UKNo streaming, rental or purchase options known.

Created by: Emir Kusturica
Genres: Drama, Comedy, War & politics
Starring: Predrag 'Miki' Manojlović, Lazar Ristovski, Mirjana Joković

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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone: absurdstrength 3 of 3
darkstrength 3 of 3
satiricalstrength 2 of 3
melancholicstrength 2 of 3
Pacing: slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention: demanding, 4 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes: betrayal
war
corruption
obsession
friendship
Places: big city
countryside
Era: period
Audience: adult
Form: nonlinear
ensemble
Content intensity: Gore mild
Language strong
Violence strong
Sex mild

All scales, 0 to 10

Scales, 0 to 10
Scale	Value	0 to 10
Action	6
Horror	4
Humour	7
Realism	5
Romance	5
Tension	7
Darkness	8
Complexity	8
Emotional weight	8

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Where to watch in the UK

No UK streaming, rental or purchase options are known.

Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres: drama, comedy, war & politics
Created by: Emir Kusturica
Written by: Dušan Kovačević, Emir Kusturica
Starring: Predrag 'Miki' Manojlović, Lazar Ristovski, Mirjana Joković, Slavko Štimac, Ernst Stötzner, Srđan 'Žika' Todorović, Mirjana Karanović, Milena Pavlović Čučilović
Length: 1 seasons, 6 episodes, 327 min each
Country: France, Yugoslavia
Languages: English, German, Russian, Serbian, French

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Once Upon a Time There Was a Country

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