• The shooting of the documentary on Maradona is over. The music score of the film will be arranged by Manu Chao. The film should be ready for the Football World Cup in Germany in june 2006, and maybe… for the Cannes Film Festival ?
• With the concert of the No Smoking Orchestra in Brussels, the Life is a miracle tour is now over. There is (a priori) no more concert scheduled for 2006. But you can still enjoy the party with the CD and the DVD recorded Live is a miracle in Buenos Aires.
• The film All the invisible children (in which is the last short film Blue Gypsy by Emir Kusturica) will be released in theatres in Italy on march 3, 2006 and in Germany on april 13, 2006.
• In Cuba last november, Emir Kusturica met famous writer Gabriel Garcia-Marquez. They discussed together of a possible adaptation of the novel “El otoño del patriarca” (The Autumn of the Patriarch). This is not the first time Emir Kusturica thinks of filming a novel of Garcia-Marquez (in 1990, he was already thinking about it). This project could be attacked after Promise me this, which he should start filming in february 2006.
• The DVD of Life is a miracle is announced in Germany for 11 january 2006. The sound of the DVD is in Gerbian and in German in 5.1, but no info on the bonus. It can be ordered on Amazon.de.
• The CD of the concerts Goran Bregović and his old friends of Bijelo Dugme given in 2005 in Sarajevo, Zagreb and Belgrade are on sale on the website yu4you.com.
• Best wishes for 2006 !

• Happy birthday, Emir !

• Emir Kusturica is curently touring in Spain (Madrid and Barcelona). He will shoot the last pictures in the stadium of Barcelone, for his film Maradona. A new Football page was added for the occasion. Editing of the film should be started very soon.
• Here are the next (and last ?) dates of the tour :
  • 25/11/05 : Berlin, Germany (Arena of Berlin)
  • 01/12/05 : Kiev, Ukraine (National Palace)
  • 03/12/05 : Lviv, Ukraine (Musical comedy theatre)
  • 05/12/05 : Odessa, Ukraine (Sports hall)
  • 18/12/05 : Paris, France (Olympia)
  • 20/12/05 : Brussels, Belgium (L'Ancienne Belgique)
• The DVD Le court des Grands (containing - among others - the short end-of-studies film Guernica), will be released in France is still scheduled for 30 november.
• One figure : there has been in 2005 more than 150.000 tourists that came to visit Küstendorf.
• In a recent interview Emir Kusturica has talked again of his project of making an opera based on Time of the gypsies in 2007. It's the No Smoking Orchestra that will make the music… On this occasion, for the people who speak serbo-croatian, I suggest this site, dedicated to the memory of the great actor Davor Dujmović : www.perhan.com, site made by Davor's brother.

• Emir Kusturica is in Argentina. He was Monday evening a special guest of Diego Maradona, in his argentine TV show “La noche del 10”, for his 45th birthday. During this show an interview of Fidel Castro by Maradona was shown, and we could see the mutual admiration of both personalities. Emir Kusturica should take advantage of his presence in Argentina to go in the protest train “l'expresso del alba”, from Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata with other personalities such as Diego Maradona and Peace Nobel Prize Adolfo Pérez Esquivel to the Conter-Summit, organised as a response to the Summet of the Americas where Georges W. Bush and 34 Leaders will be present, at notable exception of the one of Cuba. Emir Kusturica will continue the shooting of his film Maradona, and will finish it at the Aztec stadium in Mexico where Maradona signed one of his greatest goals, during the World Cup 1986 against the English team.
• There is a new page on the website : it is dedicated to the short films of Emir Kusturica.
• The Forum allows now the choice of the interface language between French, English and German. The little cookies problems have been corrected and now your computer will remember your login at your next visits.
• The forthcoming dates of the No Smoking Orchestra tour :
  • 21/11/05 : Lisbon, Portugal
  • 22/11/05 : Madrid, Spain
  • 23/11/05 : Barcelona, Spain
  • 25/11/05 : Berlin, Germany (Arena of Berlin)
  • 01/12/05 : Kiev, Ukraine (National Palace)
  • 03/12/05 : Odessa, Ukraine (Sports hall)
  • 05/12/05 : Lviv, Ukraine (Musical comedy theatre)
  • 18/12/05 : Paris, France (Olympia)
  • 20/12/05 : Brussels, Belgium (L'Ancienne Belgique)
• An interesting initiative in Brussels : the association [YU]films, proposes to organise once a month a projection of films of any format, any style and any time, from Serbia and Montenegro, along with meetings and debates with the directors, exceptionally invited for the occasion. The projections will take place at Espace Delvaux, Place Keym in Brussels. More information : +32 2 663 85 50, yufilm@gmail.com. The programme starts on 15 november with the short film Pan Hrstka by Goran Paskaljević, and the film Serbia Year Zero (Srbija, Godina Nulta) by Goran Marković, with director Goran Marković. And on 19 december with (A)Torzija (short film by Stefan Arsenijević, Golden Bear in Berlin in 2003) and Sjaj U Ocima by Srdjan Karanović, with director Stefan Arsenijević.

• For the village of Küstendorf, Emir Kusturica has received on saterday 22 october the Philippe Rotthier Prize for the reconstruction of the city, a prestigious european architecture prize given every three years by the Foundation of Architecture in Bruxelles to an original project. A photo exhibition presenting Küstendorf was shown to the press, then officially opened, as well as a temporary exhibition on Alter Architecture. A the same time surprised and enthousiastic by the choice of the jury Emir Kusturica has declared : ”the last place I would have imagined myself recieving a prize is here, in a foundation of architecture ; (…) but the jobs of architect and director are finally very close, in the way where reception of the work by the public is the same. Küstendorf was built with no plan, no mathematics ; it's the fantasy of a director…”. Member of the jury that gave the prize to Küstendorf, French architect Rudy Ricciotti says about the winner : ”After architecture as a way of making cinema with the annual Archilab exhibition, here is at last the cinema as a way of making architecture (…). In Küstendorf the village is a miracle, it makes war to mediocrity”. The complete story with images of these days in Bruxelles.
  

The Alter-Architecture exhibition will be opened until 26 march 2006, and really deserves a visit for those who are in Brussels !

• 8 new concerts of the No Smoking Orchestra are announced :
  • 21/11/05 : Lisbone, Portugal
  • 23/11/05 : Barcelone, Spain
  • 25/11/05 : Berlin, Germany (Arena of Berlin)
  • 01/12/05 : Kiev, Ukraine (National Palace)
  • 03/12/05 : Odessa, Ukraine (Sports hall)
  • 05/12/05 : Lviv, Ukraine (Musical comedy theatre)
  • 18/12/05 : Paris, France (Olympia)
  • 20/12/05 : Bruxelles, Belgium
• On the No Smoking Orchestra website, some video sequences from the live DVD are available for download !